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Copyright, igoi, by (CK 

The Century Company 

Copyright, igoi, by 
Mrs, Frances Hodgson Burnett 

Copyright, igoi, by 
Frederick A, Stokes Company 


Published September, igoi 


THE LIBRARY OF 
CONGRESS, 
Two Copies Rece»ved 

SEP. 13 1901 

Copyright entry 
CLASS ^XXc. N». 
COPY B, 


University Pressy yobn Wilson and Son 
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HEN Miss Fox-Seton 
descended from the 
twopenny bus as it 
drew up, she gathered 
her trim tailor-made 
skirt about her with neatness and de- 
corum, being well used to getting in and 
out of twopenny buses and to making her 
way across muddy London streets. A 
woman whose tailor-made suit must last 
two or three years soon learns how to pro- 
tect it from splashes, and how to aid it to 
retain the freshness of its folds. During her 
["] 



THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
trudging about this morning in the wet, 
Emily Fox-Seton had been very careful, and, 
in fact, was returning to Mortimer Street as 
unspotted as she had left it. She had been 
thinking a good deal about her dress — this 
particular faithful one which she had already 
worn through a twelvemonth. Skirts had 
made one of their appalling changes, and as 
she walked down Regent Street and Bond 
Street she had stopped at the windows of 
more than one shop bearing the sign ^‘•Ladies’ 
Tailor and Habit-Maker,” and had looked 
at the tautly attired, preternaturally slim 
models, her large, honest hazel eyes wear- 
ing an anxious expression. She was trying 
to discover where seams were to be placed 
and how gathers were to be hung ; or if 
there were to be gathers at all ; or if one 
had to be bereft of every seam in a style so 

C >2 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

unrelenting as to forbid the possibility of the 
honest and semi-penniless struggling with 
the problem of remodelling last season’s skirt 
at all. 

‘‘As it is only quite an ordinary brown,” 
she had murmured to herself, “I might be 
able to buy a yard or so to match it, and 
I might be able to join the gore near the 
pleats at the back so that it would not be 
seen.” 

She quite beamed as she reached the 
happy conclusion. She was such a simple, 
normal-minded creature that it took but 
little to brighten the aspect of life for her 
and to cause her to break into her good- 
natured, childlike smile. A little kindness 
from any one, a little pleasure or a little 
comfort, made her glow with nice-tempered 
enjoyment. 


[ 13 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
As she got out of the bus, and picked up 
her rough brown skirt, prepared to tramp 
bravely through the mud of Mortimer Street 
to her lodgings, she was positively radiant. 
It was not only her smile which was child- 
like, her face itself was childlike for a woman 
of her age and size. She was thirty-four 
and a well-set-up creature, with fine square 
shoulders and a long small waist and good 
hips. She was a big woman, but carried 
herself well, and having solved the problem 
of obtaining, through marvels of energy and 
management, one good dress a year, wore it 
so well, and changed her old ones so dexter- 
ously, that she always looked rather smartly 
dressed. She had nice, round, fresh cheeks 
and nice big, honest eyes, plenty of mouse- 
brown hair and a short, straight nose. She 
was striking and well-bred-looking, and her 

[ h] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
plenitude of good-natured interest in every- 
body, and her pleasure in everything out of 
which pleasure could be wrested, gave her 
big eyes a fresh look which made her seem 
rather like a nice overgrown girl than a 
mature woman whose life was a continu- 
ous struggle with the narrowest of mean 
fortunes. 

She was a woman of good blood and of 
good education, as the education of such 
women goes. She had few relatives, and 
none of them had any intention of burden- 
ing themselves with her pennilessness. 
They were people of excellent family, but 
had quite enough to do to keep their sons in 
the army or navy and find husbands for their 
daughters. When Emily’s mother had died 
and her small annuity had died with her, 
none of them had wanted the care of a big 
[ G] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
raw-boned girl, and Emily had had the situa- 
tion frankly explained to her. At eighteen 
she had begun work as assistant teacher in 
a small school ; the year following she had 
taken a place as nursery-governess ; then she 
had been reading-companion to an unpleas- 
ant old woman in Northumberland. The 
old woman had lived in the country, and her 
relatives had hovered over her like vultures 
awaiting her decease. The household had 
been gloomy and gruesome enough to have 
driven into melancholy madness any girl not 
of the sanest and most matter-of-fact tem- 
perament. Emily Fox-Seton had endured it 
with an unfailing good nature, which at last 
had actually awakened in the breast of her 
mistress a ray of human feeling. When the 
old woman at length died, and Emily was to 
be turned out into the world, it was revealed 

C *6] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
that she had been left a legacy of a few 
hundred pounds, and a letter containing 
some rather practical, if harshly expressed, 
advice. 

Go back to London [Mrs. Maytham had 
written in her feeble, crabbed hand]. You are 
not clever enough to do anything remarkable in 
the way of earning your living, but you are so 
good-natured that you can make yourself useful to 
a lot of helpless creatures who will pay you a trifle 
for looking after them and the affairs they are too 
lazy or too foolish to manage for themselves. You 
might get on to one of the second-class fashion- 
papers to answer ridiculous questions about house- 
keeping or wall-papers or freckles. You know the 
kind of thing I mean. You might write notes or 
do accounts and shopping for some lazy woman. 
You are a practical, honest creature, and you have 
good manners. I have often thought that you had 
just the kind of commonplace gifts that a host of 
commonplace people want to find at their service. 
An old servant of mine who lives in Mortimer 
Street would probably give you cheap, decent 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

lodgings, and behave well to you for my sake. 
She has reason to be fond of me. Tell her I sent 
you to her, and that she must take you in for ten 
shillings a week. 

Emily wept for gratitude, and ever after- 
ward enthroned old Mrs. Maytham on an 
altar as a princely and sainted benefactor, 
though after she had invested her legacy she 
got only twenty pounds a year from it. 

^Mt was so kind of her,” she used to say 
with heartfelt humbleness of spirit. I 
never dreamed of her doing such a generous 
thing. I hadn’t a shadow of a claim upon 
her — not a shadow,"*^ 

It was her way to express her honest 
emotions with emphasis which italicised, as 
it were, her outpourings of pleasure or 
appreciation. 

She returned to London and presented 
herself to the ex-serving-woman. Mrs. Cupp 

C i8] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
had indeed reason to remember her mistress 
gratefully. At a time when youth and in- 
discreet affection had betrayed her disas- 
trously, she had been saved from open 
disgrace and taken care of by Mrs. May- 
tham. The old lady, who had then been a 
vigorous, sharp-tongued, middle-aged woman, 
had made the soldier lover marry his despair- 
ing sweetheart, and when he had promptly 
drunk himself to death, she had set her up 
in a lodging-house which had thriven and 
enabled her to support herself and her 
daughter decently. 

In the second story of her respectable, 
dingy house there was a small room which 
she went to some trouble to furnish up for 
her dead mistress’s friend. It was made into 
a bed-sitting-room with the aid of a cot 
which Emily herself bought and disguised 

[ 19] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
decently as a couch during the daytime, by 
means of a red and blue Como blanket. 
The one window of the room looked out 
upon a black little back-yard and a sooty 
wall on which thin cats crept stealthily or 
sat and mournfully gazed at fate. The 
Como rug played a large part in the decora- 
tion of the apartment. One of them, with a 
piece of tape run through a hem, hung over 
the door in the character of a portiere ; 
another covered a corner which was Miss 
Fox-Seton’s sole wardrobe. As she began 
to get work, the cheerful, aspiring creature 
bought herself a Kensington carpet-square, 
as red as Kensingson art would permit it to 
be. She covered her chairs with Turkey-red 
cotton, frilling them round the seats. Over 
her cheap white muslin curtains (eight and 
eleven a pair at Robson’s) she hung Turkey- 
[ 20 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
red draperies. She bought a cheap cushion 
at one of Liberty’s sales, and some bits of 
twopenny-halfpenny art china for her narrow 
mantelpiece. A lacquered tea-tray and a 
tea-set of' a single cup and saucer, a plate 
and a teapot, made her feel herself almost 
sumptuous. After a day spent in trudging 
about in the wet or cold of the streets, doing 
other people’s shopping, or searching for 
dressmakers or servants’ characters for her 
patrons, she used to think of her bed-sitting- 
room with joyful anticipation. Mrs. Cupp 
always had a bright fire glowing in her tiny 
grate when she came in, and when her lamp 
was lighted under its home-made shade of 
crimson Japanese paper, its cheerful air, com- 
bining itself with the singing of her little, 
fat, black kettle on the hob, seemed absolute 
luxury to a tired, damp woman. 

c 21 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Mrs. Cupp and Jane Cupp were very 
kind and attentive to her. No one who 
lived in the same house with her could have 
helped liking her. She gave so little trouble, 
and was so expansively pleased by any atten- 
tion, that the Cupps, — who were sometimes 
rather bullied and snubbed by the profes- 
sionals ” who generally occupied their other 
rooms, — quite loved her. Sometimes the 
professionals,” extremely smart ladies and 
gentlemen who did turns at the halls or 
played small parts at theatres, were irregular 
in their payments or went away leaving bills 
behind them; but Miss Fox-Set on’s pay- 
ments were as regular as Saturday night, 
and, in fact, there had been times when, 
luck being against her, Emily had gone 
extremely hungry during a whole week 
rather than buy her lunches at the ladies’ 
[ 22 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
tea-shops with the money that would pay 
her rent. 

In the honest minds of the Cupps, she 
had become a sort of possession of which 
they were proud. She seemed to bring into 
their dingy lodging-house a touch of the 
great world, — that world whose people lived 
in Mayfair and had country-houses where 
they entertained parties for the shooting and 
the hunting, and in which also existed the 
maids and matrons who on cold spring morn- 
ings sat, amid billows of satin and tulle 
and lace, surrounded with nodding plumes, 
waiting, shivering, for hours in their car- 
riages that they might at last enter Buck- 
ingham Palace and be admitted to the 
Drawing-room. Mrs. Cupp knew that Miss 
Fox-Seton was ‘^well connected;” she knew 
that she possessed an aunt with a title, 

[23 j 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

though her ladyship never took the slight- 
est notice of her niece. Jane Cupp took 
“ Modern Society,” and now and then had 
the pleasure of reading aloud to her young 
man little incidents concerning some castle 
or manor in which Miss Fox-Seton’s aunt, 
Lady Malfry, was staying with earls and 
special favorites of the Prince’s. Jane also 
knew that Miss Fox-Seton occasionally sent 
letters addressed “To the Right Honourable 
the Countess of So-and-so,” and received 
replies stamped with coronets. Once even 
a letter had arrived adorned with strawberry- 
leaves, an incident which Mrs. Cupp and 
Jane had discussed with deep interest over 
their hot buttered-toast and tea. 

Emily Fox-Seton, however, was far from 
making any professions of grandeur. As 
time went on, she had become fond enough 

[ 24] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
of the Cupps to be quite frank with them 
about her connections with these grand 
people. The countess had heard from a 
friend that Miss Fox-Seton had once found 
her an excellent governess, and she had 
commissioned her to find for her a reliable 
young ladies’ serving-maid. She had done 
some secretarial work for a charity of which 
the duchess was patroness. In fact, these 
people knew her only as a well-bred woman 
who for a modest remuneration would make 
herself extremely useful in numberless prac- 
tical ways. She knew much more of them 
than they knew of her, and, in her affection- 
ate admiration for those who treated her 
with human kindness, sometimes spoke to 
Mrs. Cupp or Jane of their beauty or charity 
with a very nice, ingenuous feeling. Natu- 
rally some of her patrons grew fond of 

C 25 ] 


THE MAKING ^ MARCHIONESS 
her, and as she was a fine, handsome 
young woman with a perfectly correct 
bearing, they gave her little pleasures, invit- 
ing her to tea or luncheon, or taking her 
to the theatre. 

Her enjoyment of these things was so 
frank and grateful that the Cupps counted 
them among their own joys. Jane Cupp — 
who knew something of dressmaking — felt 
it a brilliant thing to be called upon to reno- 
vate an old dress or help in the making of 
a new one for some festivity. The Cupps 
thought their tall, well-built lodger some- 
thing of a beauty, and when they had helped 
her to dress for the evening, baring her fine, 
big white neck and arms, and adorning her 
thick braids of hair with some sparkling, 
trembling ornament, after putting her in her 
four-wheeled cab, they used to go back to 
[26] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
their kitchen and talk about her, and wonder 
that some gentleman who wanted a hand- 
some, stylish woman at the head of his table, 
did not lay himself and his fortune at her 
feet. 

“ In the photograph-shops in Regent Street 
you see many a lady in a coronet that has n’t 
half the good looks she has,” Mrs. Cupp 
remarked frequently. She ’s got a nice 
complexion and a fine head of hair, and — 
if you ask me — she ’s got as nice a pair ot 
clear eyes as a lady could have. Then look 
at her figure — her neck and her waist ! 
That kind of big long throat of hers would 
set off rows of pearls or diamonds beautiful ! 
She ’s a lady born, too, for all her simple, 
every-day way ; and she ’s a sweet creature, 
if ever there was one. For kind-heartedness 
and good-nature I never saw her equal.” 

[27] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

Miss Fox-Seton had middle-class patrons 
as well as noble ones, — in fact, those of 
the middle class were far more numerous 
than the duchesses, — so it had been pos- 
sible for her to do more than one good turn 
for the Cupp household. She had got sew- 
ing in Maida Vale and Bloomsbury for Jane 
Cupp many a time, and Mrs. Cupp’s dining- 
room floor had been occupied for years by 
a young man Emily had been able to rec- 
ommend. Her own appreciation of good 
turns made her eager to do them for others. 
She never let slip a chance to help any one 
in any way. 

It was a good-natured thing done by one 
of her patrons who liked her, which made 
her so radiant as she walked through the 
mud this morning. She was inordinately 
fond of the country, and having had what 
[28] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
she called a bad winter,” she had not seen 
the remotest chance of getting out of town 
at all during the summer months. The 
weather was beginning to be unusually hot, 
and her small red room, which seemed so 
cosy in winter, was shut in by a high 
wall from all chance of breezes. Occasion- 
ally she lay and panted a little in her cot, 
and felt that when all the private omnibuses, 
loaded with trunks and servants, had rattled 
away and deposited their burdens at the 
various stations, life in town would be rather 
lonely. Every one she knew would have 
gone somewhere, and Mortimer Street in 
August was a melancholy thing. 

And Lady Maria had actually invited 
her to Mallowe. What a piece of good 
fortune — what an extraordinary piece of 
kindness ! 

[29] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

She did not know what a source of enter- 
tainment she was to Lady Maria, and how 
the shrewd, worldly old thing liked her. 
Lady Maria Bayne was the cleverest, sharp- 
est-tongued, smartest old woman in London. 
She knew everybody and had done every- 
thing — in her youth, a good many things not 
considered highly proper. A certain royal 
duke had been much pleased with her, and 
people had said some very nasty things about 
it. But this had not hurt Lady Maria. She 
knew how to say nasty things herself, and 
as she said them wittily they were usually 
listened to and repeated. 

Emily Fox-Seton had gone to her first to 
write notes for an hour every morning. She 
had sent, declined, and accepted invitations, 
and put off charities and dull people. She 
wrote a fine, dashing hand, and had a 

[30] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

matter-of-fact intelligence and knowledge 
of things. Lady Maria began to depend 
on her and to find that she could be sent 
on errands and depended on to do a num- 
ber of things. Consequently, she was often 
at South Audley Street, and once, when 
Lady Maria was suddenly taken ill and was 
horribly frightened about herself, Emily was 
such a comfort to her that she kept her 
for three weeks. 

The creature is so cheerful and perfectly 
free from vice that she ’s a relief,” her lady- 
ship said to her nephew afterward. ‘‘ So 
many women are affected cats. She ’ll go 
out and buy you a box of pills or a porous 
plaster, but at the same time she has a kind 
of simplicity and freedom from spites and 
envies which might be the natural thing 
for a princess.” 


[ 31 ] 


THE xMAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
So it happened that occasionally Emily 
put on her best dress and most carefully 
built hat and went to South Audley Street to 
tea. (Sometimes she had previously gone in 
buses to some remote place in the City to 
buy a special tea of which there had been 
rumours.) She met some very smart people 
and rarely any stupid ones, Lady Maria being 
incased in a perfect, frank armour of good- 
humoured selfishness, which would have been 
capable of burning dulness at the stake. 

I won’t have dull people,” she used to 
say. I ’m dull myself.” 

When Emily Fox-Seton went to her on 
the morning in which this story opens, she 
found her consulting her visiting-book and 
making lists. 

I ’m arranging my parties for Mallowe,” 
she said rather crossly. How tiresome it 

[ 32 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
is ! The people one wants at the same time 
are always nailed to the opposite ends of 
the earth. And then things are found out 
about people, and one can’t have them till 
it ’s blown over. Those ridiculous Dexters ! 
They were the nicest possible pair — both of 
them good-looking and both of them ready 
to flirt with anybody. But there was too 
much flirting, I suppose. Good heavens I if 
I could n’t have a scandal and keep it quiet, 
I would n’t have a scandal at all. Come 
and help me, Emily.” 

Emily sat down beside her. 

You see, it is my early August party,” 
said her ladyship, rubbing her delicate little 
old nose with her pencil, ‘‘and Walderhurst 
is coming to me. It always amuses me to 
have Walderhurst. The moment a man 
like that comes into a room the women 
3 [ 33 J 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
begin to frisk about and swim and languish, 
except those who try to get up interesting 
conversations they think likely to attract his 
attention. They all think it is possible that 
he may marry them. If he were a Mormon 
he might have marchionesses of Walderhurst 
of all shapes and sizes.” 

I suppose,” said Emily, that he was 
very much in love with his first wife and 
will never marry again.” 

He was n’t in love with her any more 
than he was in love with his housemaid. He 
knew he must marry, and thought it very 
annoying. As the child died, I believe he 
thinks it his duty to marry again. But he 
hates it. He ’s rather dull, and he can’t 
bear women fussing about and wanting to 
be made love to.” 

They went over the yisiting-book and 

[ 34] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
discussed people and dates seriously. The 
list was made and the notes written before 
Emily left the house. It was not until she 
had got up and was buttoning her coat that 
Lady Maria bestowed her boon. 

Emily,” she said, ‘‘I am going to ask 
you to Mallowe on the 2d. I want you to 
help me to take care of people and keep 
them from boring me and one another, 
though I don’t mind their boring one an- 
other half so much as I mind their boring 
me. I want to be able to go olF and 
take my nap at any hour I choose. I 
will not entertain people. What you can 
do is to lead them off to gather things 
or look at church towers. I hope you ’ll 
come.” 

Emily Fox-Seton’s face flushed rosily, and 
her eyes opened and sparkled. 

[ 35 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
O Lady Maria, you are kind ! ” she 
said. You know how I 'should enjoy it. 
I have heard so much of Mallowe. Every 
one says it is so beautiful and that there are 
no such gardens in England.’’ 

They are good gardens. My husband 
was rather mad about roses. The best train 
for you to take is the 2:30 from Paddington. 
That will bring you to the Court just in 
time for tea on the lawn.” 

Emily could have kissed Lady Maria if 
they had been on the terms which lead peo- 
ple to make demonstrations of affection. 
But she would have been quite as likely to 
kiss the butler when he bent over her at 
dinner and murmured in dignified confi- 
dence, Port or sherry, miss ? ” Bibs- 
worth would have been no more astonished 
than Lady Maria would, and Bibsworth 
[36] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

certainly would have expired of disgust and 
horror. 

She was so happy when she hailed the 
twopenny bus that when she got into it her 
face was beaming with the delight which 
adds freshness and good looks to any woman. 
To think that such good luck had come to 
her! To think of leaving her hot little 
room behind her and going as a guest to one 
of the most beautiful old houses in Eng- 
land ! How delightful it would be to live 
for a while quite naturally the life the for- 
tunate people lived year after year — to be 
a part of the beautiful order and picturesque- 
ness and dignity of it ! To sleep in a lovely 
bedroom, to be called in the morning by a 
perfect housemaid, to have one’s early tea 
served in a delicate cup, and to listen as 
one drank it to the birds singing in the 
C 37 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
trees in the park ! She had an ingenuous 
appreciation of the simplest material joys, 
and the fact that she would wear her nicest 
clothes every day, and dress for dinner every 
evening, was a delightful thing to reflect 
upon. She got so much more out of life than 
most people, though she was not aware of it. 

She opened the front door of the house 
in Mortimer Street with her latch-key, and 
went upstairs, almost unconscious that the 
damp heat was dreadful. She met Jane 
Cupp coming down, and smiled at her 
happily. 

Jane,” she said, “ if you are not busy, 
I should like to have a little talk with you. 
Will you come into my room ? ” 

‘‘Yes, miss,” Jane replied, with her usual 
respectful lady’s-maid’s air. It was in truth 
Jane’s highest ambition to become some day 

[38] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
maid to a great lady, and she privately felt 
that her association with Miss Fox-Seton 
was the best possible training. She used to 
ask to be allowed to dress her when she 
went out, and had felt it a privilege to be 
permitted to do ” her hair. 

She helped Emily to remove her walking- 
dress, and neatly folded away her gloves and 
veil. She knelt down before her as soon 
as she saw her seat herself to take off her 
muddy boots. 

‘‘ Oh, thank you, Jane,” Emily exclaimed, 
with her kind italicised manner. That is 
good of you. I am tired, really. But such 
a nice thing has happened. I have had such 
a delightful invitation for the first week in 
August.” 

I ’m sure you ’ll enjoy it, miss,” said 
Jane. It ’s so hot in August.” 

[ 39 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
‘^Lady Maria Bayne has been kind enough 
to invite me to Mallowe Court,” explained 
Emily, smiling down at the cheap slipper 
Jane was putting on her large, well-shaped 
foot. She was built on a large scale, 
and her foot was of no Cinderella-like 
proportions. 

O miss ! ” exclaimed Jane. How 
beautiful ! I was reading about Mallowe in 
‘ Modern Society ’ the other day, and it said 
it was lovely and her ladyship’s parties were 
wonderful for smartness. The paragraph 
was about the Marquis of Walderhurst.” 

He is Lady Maria’s cousin,” said Emily, 
‘‘ and he will be there when I am.” 

She was a friendly creature, and lived a 
life so really isolated from any ordinary com- 
panionship that her simple little talks with 
Jane and Mrs. Cupp were a pleasure to 
[40] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
her. The Cupps were neither gossiping 
nor intrusive, and she felt as if they were 
her friends. Once when she had been ill 
for a week she remembered suddenly real- 
ising that she had no intimates at all, and 
that if she died Mrs. Cupp’s and Jane’s 
would certainly be the last faces — and the 
only ones — she would see. She had cried 
a little the night she thought of it, but 
then, as she told herself, she was feverish 
and weak, and it made her morbid. 

It was because of this invitation that 
I wanted to talk to you, Jane,” she went 
on. You see, we shall have to begin to 
contrive about dresses.” 

^^Yes, indeed, miss. It’s fortunate that 
the summer sales are on, is n’t it ? I saw 
some beautiful colored linens yesterday. 
They were so cheap, and they do make up 
[41 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
so smart for the country. Then you Ve got 
your new Tussore with the blue collar and 
waistband. It does become you.” 

I must say I think that a Tussore always 
looks fresh,” said Emily, and I saw a really 
nice little tan toque — one of those soft straw 
ones — for three and eleven. And just a 
twist of blue chiffon and a wing would make 
it look quite goodJ^ 

She was very clever with her fingers, and 
often did excellent things with a bit of 
chiffon and a wing, or a few yards of linen 
or muslin and a remnant of lace picked up at 
a sale. She and Jane spent quite a happy 
afternoon in careful united contemplation of 
the resources of her limited wardrobe. They 
found that the brown skirt could be altered, 
and, with the addition of new revers and 
collar and a jabot of string-coloured lace 

[ 42 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
at the neck, would look quite fresh. A 
black net evening dress, which a patron 
had good-naturedly given her the year be- 
fore, could be remodelled and touched up 
delightfully. Her fresh face and her square 
white shoulders were particularly adorned 
by black. There was a white dress which 
could be sent to the cleaner’s, and an 
old pink one whose superfluous breadths 
could be combined with lace and achieve 
wonders. 

‘‘ Indeed, I think I shall be very well off 
for dinner-dresses,” said Emily. “ Nobody 
expects me to change often. Every one 
knows — if they notice at all.” She did not 
know she was humble-minded and of an 
angelic contentedness of spirit. In fact, she 
did not find herself interested in contempla- 
tion of her own qualities, but in contempla- 
[ 43 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
tion and admiration of those of other people. 
It was necessary to provide Emily Fox- 
Seton with food and lodging and such a 
wardrobe as would be just sufficient credit 
to her more fortunate acquaintances. She 
worked hard to attain this modest end 
and was quite satisfied. She found at the 
shops where the summer sales were being 
held a couple of cotton frocks to which 
her height and her small, long waist gave 
an air of actual elegance. A sailor hat, 
with a smart ribbon and well-set quill, a 
few new trifles for her neck, a bow, a silk 
handkerchief daringly knotted, and some 
fresh gloves, made her feel that she was 
sufficiently equipped. 

During her last expedition to the sales 
she came upon a nice white duck coat and 
skirt which she contrived to buy as a present 
[ 44 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
for Jane. It was necessary to count over 
the contents of her purse very carefully and 
to give up the purchase of a slim umbrella 
she wanted, but she did it cheerfully. If she 
had been a rich woman she would have given 
presents to every one she knew, and it was 
actually a luxury to her to be able to do 
something for the Cupps, who, she always 
felt, were continually giving her more than 
she paid for. The care they took of her 
small room, the fresh hot tea they managed 
to have ready when she came in, the penny 
bunch of daffodils they sometimes put on her 
table, were kindnesses, and she was grateful 
for them. 

I am very much obliged to you, Jane,” 
she said to the girl, when she got into the 
four-wheeled cab on the eventful day of her 
journey to Mallowe. ‘T don't know what I 
[ 45 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
should have done without you, I ’m sure. I 
feel so smart in my dress now that you have 
altered it. If Lady Maria’s maid ever thinks 
of leaving her, I am sure I could recom- 
mend you for her place.” 



[46] 







HERE were other 
visitors to Mallowe 
Court travelling by 
the 2:30 from Pad- 
dington, but they 
were much smarter 
people than Miss Fox-Seton, and they were 
put into a first-class carriage by a footman 
with a cockade and a long drab coat. Emily, 
who travelled third with some workmen 
with bundles, looked out of her window as 
they passed, and might possibly have breathed 
a faint sigh if she had not felt in such buoy- 

[47] 



THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
ant spirits. She had put on her revived 
brown skirt and a white linen blouse with a 
brown dot on it. A soft brown silk tie was 
knotted smartly under her fresh collar, and 
she wore her new sailor hat. Her gloves 
were brown, and so was her parasol. She 
looked nice and taut and fresh, but notably 
inexpensive. The people who went to sales 
and bought things at three and eleven or 
‘‘ four-three ” a yard would have been able to 
add her up and work out her total. But there 
would be no people capable of the calculation 
at Mallowe. Even the servants’ hall was 
likely to know less of prices than this one 
guest did. The people the drab-coated foot- 
man escorted to the first-class carriage were 
a mother and daughter. The mother had 
regular little features, and would have been 
pretty if she had not been much too plump. 

[48] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
She wore an extremely smart travelling-dress 
and a wonderful dust-cloak of cool, pale, 
thin silk. She was not an elegant person, 
but her appointments were luxurious and 
self-indulgent. Her daughter was pretty, 
and had a slim, swaying waist, soft pink 
cheeks, and a pouting mouth. Her large 
picture-hat of pale-blue straw, with its big 
gauze bow and crushed roses, had a slightly 
exaggerated Parisian air. 

“ It is a little too picturesque,” Emily 
thought ; but how lovely she looks in it ! 
I suppose it was so becoming she could not 
help buying it. I ’m sure it's Virot.” 

As she was looking at the girl admiringly, 
a man passed her window. He was a tall 
man with a square face. As he passed 
close to Emily, he stared through her head 
as if she had been transparent or invisible. 

4 [ 49 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
He got into the smoking-carriage next to 
her. 

When the train arrived at Mallowe station, 
he was one of the first persons who got out. 
Two of Lady Maria’s men were waiting 
on the platform. Emily recognised their 
liveries. One met the tall man, touching 
his hat, and followed him to a high cart, in 
the shafts of which a splendid iron-gray 
mare was fretting and dancing. In a few 
moments the arrival was on the high seat, 
the footman behind, and the mare speeding 
up the road. Miss Fox-Seton found her- 
self following the second footman and the 
mother and daughter, who were being taken 
to the landau waiting outside the station. 
The footman piloted them, merely touching 
his hat quickly to Emily, being fully aware 
that she could take care of herself. 

[ 50 ] 







I % t 






r-'li 




Cora Brooke 


' iL /•■ - i-- 
, •■'-lr,Ui».'' ■ 

.-.i •Tft-C' i" 

■ h-^'^ 

|v • ‘ 

•• vv 


I 





V '' 




,f I 

' s' 


9 


r . 






4 


/ 








i-'- 







THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

This she did promptly, looking after her 
box, and seeing it safe in the Mallowe omni- 
bus. When she reached the landau, the two 
other visitors were in it. She got in, and in 
entire contentment sat down with her back 
to the horses. 

The mother and daughter wore for a few 
minutes a somewhat uneasy air. They were 
evidently sociable persons, but were not 
quite sure how to begin a conversation with 
an as yet unintroduced lady who was going 
to stay at the country house to which they 
were themselves invited. 

Emily herself solved the problem, produc- 
ing her commonplace with a friendly tenta- 
tive smile. 

Is n’t it a lovely country ? ” she said. 

“ It ’s perfect,” answered the mother. 

I ’ve never visited Europe before, and the 

[ 5 «] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
English country seems to me just exquisite. 
We have a summer place in America, but 
the country is quite different.” 

She was good-natured and disposed to talk, 
and, with Emily Fox-Seton’s genial assist- 
ance, conversation flowed. Before they were 
half-way to Mallowe, it had revealed itself 
that they were from Cincinnati, and after a 
winter spent in Paris, largely devoted to 
visits to Paquin, Doucet, and Virot, they 
had taken a house in Mayfair for the season. 
Their name was Brooke. Emily thought she 
remembered hearing of them as people who 
spent a great deal of money and went in- 
cessantly to parties, always in new and 
lovely clothes. The girl had been presented 
by the American minister, and had had a 
sort of success because she dressed and 
danced exquisitely. She was the kind of 

[52] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
American girl who ended by marrying a 
title. She had sparkling eyes and a delicate 
tip-tilted nose. But even Emily guessed 
that she was an astute little person. 

Have you ever been to Mallowe Court 
before ? ” she inquired. 

‘‘No; and I am so looking forward to it. 
It is so beautiful.” 

“ Do you know Lady Maria very well ? ” 

“ I ’ve known her about three years. She 
has been very kind to me.” 

“Well, I shouldn’t have taken her for 
a particularly kind person. She ’s too 
sharp.” 

Emily amiably smiled. “ She ’s so clever,” 
she replied. 

“ Do you know the Marquis of Walder- 
hurst ? ” asked Mrs. Brooke. 

“No,” answered Miss Fox-Seton. She 
[S3] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
had no part in that portion of Lady Maria’s 
life which was illumined by cousins who 
were marquises. Lord Walderhurst did not 
drop in to afternoon tea. He kept himself 
for special dinner-parties. 

Did you see the man who drove away 
in the high cart ? ” Mrs. Brooke continued, 
with a touch of fevered interest. “ Cora 
thought it must be the marquis. The ser- 
vant who met him wore the same livery 
as the man up there ” — with a nod toward 
the box. 

It was one of Lady Maria’s servants,” 
said Emily ; I have seen him in South Aud- 
ley Street. And Lord Walderhurst was to 
be at Mallowe. Lady Maria mentioned it.” 

‘‘ There, mother ! ” exclaimed Cora. 

“Well, of course if he is to be there, 
it will make it interesting,” returned her 
[ 54 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
mother, in a tone in which lurked an ad- 
mission of relief. Emily wondered if she 
had wanted to go somewhere else and had 
been firmly directed toward Mallowe by her 
daughter. 

“We heard a great deal of him in Lon- 
don this season/’ Mrs. Brooke went on. 

Miss Cora Brooke laughed. 

“We heard that at least half a dozen 
people were determined to marry him,” she 
remarked with pretty scorn. “ I should 
think that to meet a girl who was indiffer- 
ent might be good for him.” 

“ Don’t be too indifferent, Cora,” said 
her mother, with ingenuous ineptness. 

It was a very stupid bit of revelation, and 
Miss Brooke’s eyes flashed. If Emily Fox- 
Seton had been a sharp woman, she would 
have observed that, if the role of indifferent 
[ 55 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
and piquant young person could be made 
dangerous to Lord Walderhurst, it would 
be made so during this visit. The, man was 
in peril from this beauty from Cincinnati 
and her rather indiscreet mother, though, 
upon the whole, the indiscreet maternal 
parent might unconsciously form his pro- 
tection. 

But Emily only laughed amiably, as at a 
humorous remark. She was ready to accept 
almost anything as humour. 

“Well, he would be a great match for 
any girl,” she said. “ He is so rich, you 
know. He is very rich.” 

When they reached Mallowe, and were 
led out upon the lawn, where the tea was 
being served under embowering trees, they 
found a group of guests eating little hot 
cakes and holding teacups in their hands. 

[56] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
There were several young women, and one 
of them — a very tall, very fair girl, with 
large eyes as blue as forget-me-nots, and with 
a lovely, limp, and long blue frock of the 
same shade — had been one of the beauties 
of the past season. She was a Lady Agatha 
Slade, and Emily began to admire her at 
once. She felt her to be a sort of added 
boon bestowed by kind Fate upon herself. 
It was so delightful that she should be of 
this particular house-party — this lovely 
creature, whom she had only known pre- 
viously through pictures in ladies’ illustrated 
papers. If it should occur to her to wish 
to become the Marchioness of Walder- 
hurst, what could possibly prevent the con- 
summation of her desire ? Surely not Lord 
<V' 

Walderhurst himself, if he was human. 
She was standing, leaning lightly against the 
[ 57 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
trunk of an ilex-tree, and a snow-white 
Borzoi was standing close to her, resting 
his long, delicate head against her gown, 
encouraging the caresses of her fair, stroking 
hand. She was in this attractive pose when 
Lady Maria turned in her seat and said : 

‘^There’s Walderhurst.” 

The man who had driven himself over 
from the station in the cart was coming 
towards them across the grass. He was 
past middle life and plain, but was of good 
height and had an air. It was perhaps, on 
the whole, rather an air of knowing what 
he wanted. 

Emily Fox-Seton, who by that time was 
comfortably seated in a cushioned basket- 
chair, sipping her own cup'^ of tea, gave him 
the benefit of the doubt when she wondered 
if he was not really distinguished and aristo- 

[58] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
cratic-Iooking. He was really neither, but 
was well built and well-dressed, and had 
good grayish-brown eyes, about the colour 
of his grayish-brown hair. Among these 
amiably worldly people, who were not in 
the least moved by an altruistic prompting, 
Emily’s greatest capital consisted in the fact 
that she did not expect to be taken the least 
notice of. She was not aware that it was 
her capital, because the fact was so wholly 
a part of the simple contentedness of her 
nature that she had not thought about it at 
all. The truth was that she found all her 
entertainment and occupation in being an 
audience or a spectator. 

It did not occur to her to notice that, 
when the guests were presented to him. Lord 
Walderhurst barely glanced at her surface 
as he bowed, and could scarcely be said to 
[ 59 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
forget her existence the next second, because 
he had hardly gone to the length of recog- 
nising it. As she enjoyed her extremely 
nice cup of tea and little buttered scone, 
she also enjoyed looking at his Lordship 
discreetly, and trying to make an innocent 
summing up of his mental attitudes. 

Lady Maria seemed to like him and to be 
pleased to see him. He himself seemed, 
in an undemonstrative way, to like Lady 
Maria. He also was evidently glad to get 
his tea, and enjoyed it as he sat at his cousin’s 
side. He did not pay very much attention 
to any one else. Emily was slightly dis- 
appointed to see that he did not glance at 
the beauty and the Borzoi more than twice, 
and then that his examination seemed as 
much for the Borzoi as for the beauty. 
She could not help also observing that since 
[6o] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
he had joined the circle it had become more 
animated, so far at least as the female mem- 
bers were concerned. She could not help 
remembering Lady Maria’s remark about 
the effect he produced on women when he 
entered a room. Several interesting or 
sparkling speeches had already been made. 
There was a little more laughter and chat- 
tiness, which somehow it seemed to be quite 
open to Lord Walderhurst to enjoy, though 
it was not exactly addressed to him. Miss 
Cora Brooke, however, devoted herself to a 
young man in white flannels with an air of 
tennis about him. She sat a little apart and 
talked to him in a voice soft enough to 
even exclude Lord Walderhurst. Presently 
she and her companion got up and sauntered 
away. They went down the broad flight 
of ancient stone steps which led to the ten- 

[6i ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
nis-court, lying in full view below the lawn. 
There they began to play tennis. Miss 
Brooke skimmed and darted about like a 
swallow. The swirl of her lace petticoats 
was most attractive. 

That girl ought not to play tennis in 
shoes with ridiculous heels,” remarked Lord 
Walderhurst. ‘‘She will spoil the court.” 

Lady Maria broke into a little chuckle. 

“She wanted to play at this particular 
moment,” she said. “ And as she has only 
just arrived, it did not occur to her to come 
out to tea in tennis-shoes.” 

“ She ’ll spoil the court all the same,” said 
the marquis. “ What clothes ! It ’s amaz- 
ing how girls dress now.” 

“ I wish I had such clothes,” answered 
Lady Maria, and she chuckled again. 
“ She ’s got beautiful feet.” 

[60 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

“She’s got Louis Quinze heels,” re- 
turned his Lordship. 

At all events, Emily Fox-Seton thought 
Miss Brooke seemed to intend to rather keep 
out of his way and to practise no delicate 
allurements. When her tennis-playing was 
at an - end, she sauntered about the lawn 
and terraces with her companion, tilting her 
parasol prettily over her shoulder, so that it 
formed an entrancing background to her face 
and head. She seemed to be entertaining the 
young man. His big laugh and the silver 
music of her own lighter merriment rang out 
a little tantalisingly. 

“ I wonder what Cora is saying,” said 
Mrs. Brooke to the group at large. “She 
always makes men laugh so.” 

Emily Fox-Seton felt an interest herself, 
the merriment sounded so attractive. She 

[63] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
wondered if perhaps to a man who had been 
so much run after a girl who took no notice 
of his presence and amused other men so 
much might not assume an agreeable aspect. 

But he took more notice of Lady Agatha 
Slade than of any one else that evening. 
She was placed next to him at dinner, and 
she really was radiant to look upon in palest 
green chiffon. She had an exquisite little head, 
with soft hair piled with wondrous lightness 
upon it, and her long little neck swayed like 
the stem of a flower. She was lovely enough 
to arouse in the beholder’s mind the antici- 
pation of her being silly, but she was not 
silly at all. 

Lady Maria commented upon that fact to 
Miss Fox-Seton when they met in her bed- 
room late that night. Lady Maria liked to 
talk and be talked to for half an hour after 

[64] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
the day was over, and Emily Fox-Seton’s 
admiring interest in all she said she found at 
once stimulating and soothing. Her Lady- 
ship was an old woman who indulged and 
inspired herself with an Epicurean wisdom. 
Though she would not have stupid people 
about her, she did not always want very 
clever ones. 

They give me too much exercise,” she 
said. “ The epigrammatic ones keep me 
always jumping over fences. Besides, I like 
to make all the epigrams myself.” 

Emily Fox-Seton struck a happy mean, 
and she was a genuine admirer. She was 
intelligent enough not to spoil the point of 
an epigram when she repeated it, and she 
might be relied upon to repeat it and give 
all the glory to its originator. Lady Maria 
knew there were people who, hearing your 

5 [ 65 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
good things, appropriated them without a 
scruple. 

To-night she said a number of good 
things to Emily in summing up her guests 
and their characteristics. 

“ Walderhurst has been to me three times 
when I made sure that he would not escape 
without a new marchioness attached to him. 
I should think he would take one to put an 
end to the annoyance of dangling unplucked 
upon the bough. A man in his position, if 
he has character enough to choose, can 
prevent even his wife’s being a nuisance. 
He can give her a good house, hang the 
family diamonds on her, supply a decent 
elderly woman as a sort of lady-in-waiting 
and turn her into the paddock to kick up 
her heels within the limits of decorum. His 
own rooms can be sacred to him. He has his 
[ 66 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
clubs and his personal interests. Husbands 
and wives annoy each other very little in 
these days. Married life has become com- 
paratively decent.” 

I should think his wife might be very 
happy,” commented Emily. He looks 
very kind.” 

I don’t know whether he is kind or not. 
It has never been necessary for me to borrow 
money from him.” 

Lady Maria was capable of saying odd 
things in her refined little drawling voice. 

He ’s more respectable than most men 
of his age. The diamonds are magnificent, 
and he not only has three superb places, but 
has money enough to keep them up. Now, 
there are three aspirants at Mallowe in the 
present party. Of course you can guess 
who they are, Emily ? ” 

[67] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Emily Fox-Seton almost blushed. She 
felt a little indelicate. 

‘‘ Lady Agatha would be very suitable,” she 
said. “ And Mrs. Ralph is very clever, of 
course. And Miss Brooke is really pretty.” 

Lady Maria gave vent to her small 
chuckle. 

Mrs. Ralph is the kind of woman who 
means business. She ’ll corner Walderhurst 
and talk literature and roll her eyes at him 
until he hates her. These writing women, 
who are intensely pleased with themselves, 
if they have some good looks into the bar- 
gain, believe themselves capable of marry- 
ing any one. Mrs. Ralph has fine eyes 
and rolls them. Walderhurst won’t be 
ogled. The Brooke girl is sharper than 
Ralph. She was very sharp this afternoon. 
She began at once.” 

[ 68 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
“I — I did n’t see her ” — wondering. 
‘^Yes, you did; but you didn’t under- 
stand. The tennis, and the laughing with 
young Heriot on the terrace ! She is going 
to be the piquant young woman who aggra- 
vates by indifference, and disdains rank and 
splendour; the kind of girl who has her 
innings in novelettes — but not out of them. 
The successful women are those who know 
how to toady in the right way and not obvi- 
ously. Walderhurst has far too good an 
opinion of himself to be attracted by a girl 
who is making up to another man : he ’s 
not five-and- twenty.” 

Emily Fox-Seton was reminded, in spite 
of herself, of Mrs. Brooke’s plaint : Don’t 
be too indifferent, Cora.” She did not want 
to recall it exactly, because she thought the 
Brookes agreeable and would have preferred 

[69] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
to think them disinterested. But, after all, 
she reflected, how natural that a girl who 
was . so pretty should feel that the Mar- 
quis of Walderhurst represented prospects. 
Chiefly, however, she was filled with ad- 
miration at Lady Maria’s cleverness. 

How wonderfully you observe every- 
thing, Lady Maria ! ” she exclaimed. How 
wonderfully ! ” 

“ I have had forty-seven seasons in Lon- 
don. That ’s a good many, you know. 
Forty-seven seasons of debutantes and 
mothers tend toward enlightenment. Now 
there is Agatha Slade, poor girl ! She ’s of 
a kind I know by heart. With birth and 
beauty, she is perfectly helpless. Her peo- 
ple are poor enough to be entitled to aid 
from the Charity Organisation, and they 
have had the indecency to present them- 
[ 70 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
selves w'ith six daughters — six ! All with 
delicate skins and delicate little noses and 
heavenly eyes. Most men can’t afford them, 
and they can’t afford most men. As soon 
as Agatha begins to go off a little, she will 
have to step aside, if she has not married. 
The others must be allowed their chance. 
Agatha has had the advertising of the illus- 
trated papers this season, and she has gone 
well. In these days a new beauty is adver- 
tised like a new soap. They have n’t given 
them sandwich-men in the streets, but that 
is about all that has been denied them. But 
Agatha has not had any special offer, and I 
know both she and her mother are a little 
frightened. Alix must come out next sea- 
son, and they can’t afford frocks for two. 
Agatha will have to be sent to their place 
in Ireland, and to be sent to Castle Clare is 
[71 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
almost like being sent to the Bastille. She ’ll 
never get out alive. She ’ll have to stay 
there and see herself grow thin instead of 
slim, and colourless instead of fair. Her little 
nose will grow sharp, and she will lose her 
hair by degrees.” 

Oh ! ” Emily Fox-Seton gave forth sym- 
pathetically. What a pity that would be ! 
I thought — I really thought — Lord Wal- 
derhurst seemed to admire her.” 

Oh, every one admires her, for that 
matter; but if they go no further that will 
not save her from the Bastille, poor thing. 
There, Emily; we must go to bed. We 
have talked enough.” 




O awaken in a still, de- 
licious room, with the 
summer morning sun- 
shine breaking softly 
into it through leafy 
greenness, was a de- 
lightful thing to Miss Fox-Seton, who was 
accustomed to opening her eyes upon four 
walls covered with cheap paper, to the sound of 
outside hammerings, and the rattle and heavy 
roll of wheels. In a building at the back of 
her bed-sitting-room there lived a man whose 
occupation, beginning early in the morning, 
involved banging of a persistent nature—-'^'^ 
[ 73 ] 



THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

She awakened to her first day at Mallowe, 
stretching herself luxuriously, with the smile 
of a child. She was so thankful for the soft- 
ness of her lavender-fragrant bed, and so de- 
lighted with the lovely freshness of her 
chintz-hung room. As she lay upon her 
pillow, she could see the boughs of the trees, 
and hear the chatter of darting starlings. 
When her morning tea was brought, it 
seemed like nectar to her. She was a per- 
fectly healthy woman, with a palate as un- 
spoiled as that of a six-year-old child in the 
nursery. Her enjoyment of all things was 
so normal as to be in her day and time an 
absolute abnormality. 

She rose and dressed at once, eager for 
the open air and sunshine. She was out 
upon the lawn before any one else but the 
Borzoi, which rose from beneath a tree and 
[ 74 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
came with stately walk toward her. The 
air was exquisite, the broad, beautiful stretch 
of view lay warm in the sun, the masses of 
flowers on the herbaceous borders showed 
leaves and flower-cups adorned with glitter- 
ing drops of dew. She walked across the 
spacious sweep of short-cropped sod, and 
gazed enraptured at the country spread out 
below. She could have kissed the soft 
white sheep dotting the fields and lying in 
gentle, huddled groups under the trees. 

‘^The darlings! ” she said, in a little, effu- 
sive outburst. 

She talked to the dog and fondled him. 
He seemed to understand her mood, and 
pressed close against her gown when she 
stopped. They walked together about the 
gardens, and presently picked up an exuber- 
ant retriever, which bounded and wriggled 
[ 75 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
and at once settled into a steady trot beside 
them. Emily adored the flowers as she 
walked by their beds, and at intervals 
stopped to bury her face in bunches of 
spicy things. She was so happy that the 
joy in her hazel eyes was pathetic. 

% She was startled, as she turned into a 
rather narrow rose- walk, to see Lord WaL 
derhurst coming toward her. He looked 
exceedingly clean in his fresh light knicker- 
bocker suit, which was rather becoming to 
him. A gardener was walking behind, evi- 
dently gathering roses for him, which he 
put into a shallow basket. Emily Fox-Seton 
cast about for a suitable remark to make, if 
he should chance to stop to speak to her. 
She consoled herself with the thought that 
there were things she really wanted to say 
about the beauty of the gardens, and certain 
[76] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
clumps of hcavenly-blue campanulas, which 
seemed made a feature of in the herbaceous 
borders. It was so much nicer not to be 
obliged to invent observations. But his lord- 
ship did not stop to speak to her. He was 
interested in his roses (which, she heard after- 
ward, were to be sent to town to an invalid 
friend), and as she drew near, he turned aside 
to speak to the gardener. As Emily was just 
passing him when he turned again, and as 
the passage was narrow, he found himself 
unexpectedly gazing into her face. 

Being nearly of the same height, they 
were so near each other that it was a little 
awkward. 

I beg pardon,” he said, stepping back a 
pace and lifting his straw hat. 

But he did not say, I beg pardon. Miss 
Fox-Seton,” and Emily knew that he had 
[ 77 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
not recognised her again, and had not the 
remotest idea who she was or where she 
came from. 

She passed him with her agreeable, 
friendly smile, and there returned to her 
mind Lady Maria’s remarks of the night 
before. 

To think that if he married poor pretty 
Lady Agatha she will be mistress of three 
places quite as beautiful as Mallowe, three 
lovely old houses, three sets of gardens, with 
thousands of flowers to bloom every year ! 
How nice it would be for her ! She is so 
lovely that it seems as if he must fall in love 
with her. Then, if she was Marchioness 
of Walderhurst, she could do so much for 
her sisters.” 

After breakfast she spent her morning in 
doing a hundred things for Lady Maria. 

[78] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
She wrote notes for her, and helped her to 
arrange plans for the entertainment of her 
visitors. She was very busy and happy. In 
the afternoon she drove across the moor to 
Maundell, a village on the other side of it. 
She really went on an errand for her host- 
ess, but as she was fond of driving and the 
brown cob was a beauty, she felt that she 
was being given a treat on a level with the 
rest of her ladyship’s generous hospitalities. 
She drove well, and her straight, strong 
figure showed to much advantage on the 
high seat of the cart. Lord Walderhurst 
himself commented on her as he saw her 
drive away. 

She has a nice, flat, straight back, that 
woman,” he remarked to Lady Maria. 

What is her name ? One never hears 
people’s names when one is introduced.” 

[ 79 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Her name is Emily Fox-Seton,” her 
ladyship answered, and she ’s a nice 
creature.” 

‘‘That would be an inhuman thing to say 
to most men, but if one is a thoroughly self- 
ish being, and has some knowledge of one’s 
own character, one sees that a nice creature 
might be a nice companion.” 

“You are quite right,” was Lady Maria’s 
reply, as she held up her lorgnette and 
watched the cart spin down the avenue. “ I 
am selfish myself, and I realise that is the 
reason why Emily Fox-Seton is becoming 
the lodestar of my existence. There is such 
comfort in being pandered to by a person 
who is not even aware that she is pandering. 
She does n’t suspect that she is entitled to 
thanks for it.” 

That evening Mrs. Ralph came shining 

[80] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
to dinner in amber satin, which seemed to 
possess some quality of stimulating her to 
brilliance. She was witty enough to collect 
an audience, and Lord Walderhurst was 
drawn within it. This was Mrs. Ralph’s 
evening. When the men returned to the 
drawing-room, she secured his lordship at 
once and managed to keep him. She was a 
woman who could talk pretty well, and per- 
haps Lord Walderhurst was amused. Emily 
Fox-Seton was not quite sure that he was, 
but at least he listened. Lady Agatha Slade 
looked a little listless and pale. Lovely as 
she was, she did not always collect an audi- 
ence, and this evening she said she had a 
headache. She actually crossed the room, 
and taking a seat by Miss Emily Fox-Seton, 
began to talk to her about Lady Maria’s 
charity-knitting which she had taken up. 

6 [ 8 .] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Emily was so gratified that she found conver- 
sation easy. She did not realise that at that 
particular moment she was a most agreeable 
and comforting companion for Agatha Slade. 
She had heard so much of her beauty during 
the season, and remembered so many little 
things that a girl who was a thought de- 
pressed might like to hear referred to again. 
Sometimes to Agatha the balls where people 
had collected in groups to watch her dancing, 
the flattering speeches she had heard, the daz- 
zling hopes which had been raised, seemed a 
little unreal, as if, after all, they could have 
been only dreams. This was particularly so, 
of course, when life had dulled for a while 
and the atmosphere of unpaid bills became 
heavy at home. It was so to-day, because 
the girl had received a long, anxious letter 
from her mother, in which much was said 
[ 83 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
of the importance of an early preparation 
for the presentation of Alix, who had really 
been kept back a year, and was in fact 
nearer twenty than nineteen. 

If we were not in Debrett and Burke, 
one might be reserved about such matters,” 
poor Lady Claraway wrote ; but what is 
one to do when all the world can buy one’s 
daughters’ ages at the booksellers’ ? ” 

Miss Fox-Seton had seen Lady Agatha’s 
portrait at the Academy and the way in 
which people had crowded about it. She 
had chanced to hear comments also, and she 
agreed with a number of persons who had not 
thought the picture did the original justice. 

Sir Bruce Norman was standing by me 
with an elderly lady the first time I saw it,” 
she said, as she turned a new row of the big 
white-wool scarf her hostess was knitting 
[ 83 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
for a Deep-Sea Fishermen’s Charity. “ He 
really looked quite annoyed. I heard him 
say : ^ It is not good at all. She is far, far 
lovelier. Her eyes are like blue flowers.’ 
The moment I saw you, I found myself 
looking at your eyes. I hope I did n’t seem 
rude.” 

Lady Agatha smiled. She had flushed 
delicately, and took up in her slim hand a 
skein of the white wool. 

‘‘ There are some people who are never 
rude,” she sweetly said, and you are one of 
them, I am sure. That knitting looks nice. 
I wonder if I could make a comforter for a 
deep-sea fisherman.” 

‘‘If it would amuse you to try,” Emily 
answered, “ I will begin one for you. Lady 
Maria has several pairs of wooden needles. 
Shall I ? ” 


[84] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Do, please. How kind of you ! ” 

In a pause of her conversation, Mrs. 
Ralph, a little later, looked across the room 
at Emily Fox-Seton bending over Lady Agatha 
and the knitting, as she gave her instructions. 

What a good-natured creature that is ! ” 
she said. 

Lord Walderhurst lifted his monocle and 
inserted it in his unillumined eye. He also 
looked across the room. Emily wore the 
black evening dress which gave such oppor- 
tunities to her square white shoulders and 
firm column of throat ; the country air and 
sun had deepened the colour on her cheek, 
and the light of the nearest lamp fell kindly 
on the big twist of her nut-brown hair, and 
burnished it. She looked soft and warm, 
and so generously interested in her pupil’s 
progress that she was rather sweet. 

[8s] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Lord Walderhurst simply looked at her. 
He was a man of but few words. Women 
who were sprightly found him somewhat un- 
responsive. In fact, he was aware that a 
man in his position need not exert himself. 
The women themselves would talk. They 
wanted to talk because they wanted, him to 
hear them. 

Mrs. Ralph talked. 

She is the most primeval person I know. 
She accepts her fate without a trace of re- 
sentment ; she simply accepts it.'" 

What is her fate ? ” asked Lord Walder- 
hurst, still gazing in his unbiassed manner 
through his monocle, and not turning his 
head as he spoke. 

It is her fate to be a woman who is per- 
fectly well born, and who is as penniless as 
a charwoman, and works like one. She is at 
[ 86 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

the beck and call of any one who will give 
her an odd job to earn a meal with. That 
is one of the new ways women have found 
of making a living.” 

Good skin,” remarked Lord Walder- 
hurst, irrelevantly. Good hair — quite a 
lot.” 

She has some of the nicest blood in 
England in her veins, and she engaged my 
last cook for me,” said Mrs. Ralph. 

Hope she was a good cook.” 

^^Very. Emily Fox-Seton has a faculty 
of finding decent people. I believe it is 
because she is so decent herself” — with a 
little laugh. 

Looks quite decent,” commented Wal- 
derhurst. 

The knitting was getting on famously. 

It was odd you should see Sir Bruce 
[ 87 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Norman that day,” Agatha Slade was saying. 

It must have been just before he was called 
away to India.” 

It was. He sailed the next day. I hap- 
pen to know, because some friends of mine 
met me only a few yards from your picture 
and began to talk about him. I had not 
known before that he was so rich. I had 
not heard about his collieries in Lancashire. 
Oh!” — opening her big eyes in heartfelt 
yearning, — how I wish I owned a colliery! 
It must be so nice to be rich ! ” 

I never was rich,” answered Lady Aga- 
tha, with a bitter little sigh. ‘‘ I know it 
is hideous to be poor.” 

‘‘ 1 never was rich,” said Emily, and I 
never shall be. You” — a little shyly — 
are so different.” 

Lady Agatha flushed delicately again. 

[ 88 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Emily Fox-Seton made a gentle little joke. 

You have eyes like blue flowers,” she said. 
Lady Agatha lifted the eyes like blue 
flowers, and they were pathetic. 

“ Oh ! ” she gave forth almost impetu- 
ously, sometimes it seems as if it does not 
matter whether one has eyes or not.” 

It was a pleasure to Emily Fox-Seton to 
realise that after this the beauty seemed to 
be rather drawn toward her. Their ac- 
quaintance became almost a sort of intimacy 
over the wool scarf for the deep-sea fisher- 
man, which was taken up and laid down, 
and even carried out on the lawn and left 
under the trees for the footmen to restore 
when they brought in the rugs and cushions. 
Lady Maria was amusing herself with the 
making of knitted scarfs and helmets just 
now, and bits of white or gray knitting were 
[ 89 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
the fashion at Mallowe. Once Agatha 
brought hers to Emily’s room in the after- 
noon to ask that a dropped stitch might be 
taken up, and this established a sort of pre- 
cedent. Afterward they began to exchange 
visits. 

The strenuousness of things was becom- 
ing, in fact, almost too much for Lady 
Agatha. Most unpleasant things were hap- 
pening at home, and occasionally Castle 
Clare loomed up grayly in the distance like 
a spectre. Certain tradespeople who ought, 
in Lady Claraway’s opinion, to have kept 
quiet and waited in patience until things 
became better, were becoming hideously 
persistent. In view of the fact that Alix 
ne^ct season must be provided for, it was 
most awkward. A girl could not be pre- 
sented and properly launched in the world, 

[ 90] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
in a way which would give her a proper 
chance, without expenditure. To the Clara- 
ways expenditure meant credit, and there 
were blots as of tears on the letters in which 
Lady Claraway reiterated that the trades- 
people were behaving horribly. Sometimes, 
she said once in desperation, things looked 
as if they would all be obliged to shut them- 
selves up in Castle Clare to retrench ; and 
then what was to become of Alix and her 
season ? And there were Millicent and 
Hilda and Eve. 

More than once there was the mist of 
tears in the flower-blue eyes when Lady 
Agatha came to talk. Confidence between 
two women establishes itself through pro- 
cesses at once subtle and simple. Emily 
Fox-Seton could not have told when she first 
began to know that the beauty was troubled 

[91 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
and distressed ; Lady Agatha did not know 
when she first slipped into making little frank 
speeches about herself \ but these things came 
about. Agatha found something like com- 
fort in her acquaintance with the big, normal, 
artless creature — something which actually 
raised her spirits when she was depressed. 
Emily Fox-Seton paid constant kindly trib- 
ute to her charms, and helped her to believe 
in them. When she was with her, Agatha 
always felt that she really was lovely, after 
all, and that loveliness was a great capital. 

Emily admired and revered it so, and evi- 

« 

dently never dreamed of doubting its om- 
nipotence. She used to talk as if any girl 
who was a beauty was a potential duchess. 
In fact, this was a thing she quite ingenu- 
ously believed. She had not lived in a world 
where marriage was a thing of romance, 

[92] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
and, for that matter, neither had Agatha. 
It was nice if a girl liked the man who 
married her, but if he was a well-behaved, 
agreeable person, of good means, it was 
natural that she would end by liking him 
sufficiently ; and to be provided for com- 
fortably or luxuriously for life, and not left 
upon one’s own hands or one’s parents’, was 
a thing to be thankful for in any case. It 
was such a relief to everybody to know 
that a girl was settled,” and especially 
it was such a relief to the girl herself. Even 
novels and plays were no longer fairy-stories 
of entrancing young men and captivating 
young women who fell in love with each 
other in the first chapter, and after increas- 
ingly picturesque incidents were married in 
the last one in the absolute surety of be- 
ing blissfully happy forevermore. Neither 
[ 93 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Lady Agatha nor Emily had been brought 
up on this order of literature, nor in an at- 
mosphere in which it was accepted without 
reservation. 

They had both had hard lives, and knew 
what lay before them. Agatha knew she 
must make a marriage or fade out of ex- 
istence in prosaic and narrowed dulness. 
Emily knew that there was no prospect for 
her of desirable marriage at all. She was 
too poor, too entirely unsupported by social 
surroundings, and not sufficiently radiant to 
catch the roving eye. To be able to main- 
tain herself decently, to be given an occa- 
sional treat by her more fortunate friends, 
and to be allowed by fortune to present to 
the face of the world the appearance of a 
woman who was not a pauper, was all she 
could expect. But she felt that Lady Agatha 

[ 94] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
had the right to more. She did not reason 
the matter out and ask herself why she had 
the right to more, but she accepted the prop- 
osition as a fact. She was ingenuously 
interested in her fate, and affectionately 
sympathetic. She used to look at Lord 
Walderhurst quite anxiously at times when 
he was talking to the girl. An anxious 
mother could scarcely have regarded him 
with a greater desire to analyse his senti- 
ments. The match would be such a fitting 
one. He would make such an excellent 
husband — and there were three places, and 
the diamonds were magnificent. Lady Maria 
had described to her a certain tiara which 
she frequently pictured to herself as glitter- 
ing above Agatha’s exquisite low brow. It 
would be infinitely more becoming to her 
than to Miss Brooke or Mrs. Ralph, though 
[ 95 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
either of them would have worn it with spirit. 
She could not help feeling that both Mrs. 
Ralph’s brilliancy and Miss Brooke’s in- 
souciant prettiness were not unworthy of 
being counted in the running, but Lady 
Agatha seemed somehow so much more 
completely the thing wanted. She was 
anxious that she should always look her best, 
and when she knew that disturbing letters 
were fretting her, and saw that they made 
her look pale and less luminous, she tried 
to raise her spirits. 

Suppose we take a brisk walk,” she 
would say, and then you might try a 
little nap. You look a little tired.” 

‘‘ Oh,” said Agatha one day, how kind 
you are to me ! I believe you actually care 
about my complexion — about my looking 
well.” 


/ 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

‘‘Lord Walderhurst said to me the other 
day,” was Emily’s angelically tactful answer, 
“ that you were the only woman he had ever 
seen who always looked lovely.” 

“ Did he ? ” exclaimed Lady Agatha, and 
flushed sweetly. “ Once Sir Bruce Norman 
actually said that to me. I told him it was 
the nicest thing that could be said to a 
woman. It is all the nicer” — with a sigh 
— “because it is n’t really true.” 

“ I am sure Lord Walderhurst believed it 
true,” Emily said. “ He is not a man who 
talks, you know. He is very serious and 
dignified.” 

She had herself a reverence and admiration 
for Lord Walderhurst bordering on tender 
awe. He was indeed a well-mannered per- 
son, of whom painful things were not said. 
He also conducted himself well toward his 
^ [ 97 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
tenantry, and was patron of several notable 
charities. To the unexacting and innocently 
respectful mind of Emily Fox-Seton this 
was at once impressive and attractive. She 
knew, though not intimately, many noble 
personages quite unlike him. She was rather 
early Victorian and touchingly respectable. 

I have been crying,” confessed Lady 
Agatha. 

I was afraid so. Lady Agatha,” said 
Emily. 

Things are getting hopeless in Curzon 
Street. I had a letter from Millicent this 
morning. She is next in age to Alix, and 
she says — oh, a number of things. When 
girls see everything passing by them, it 
makes them irritable. Millicent is seven- 
teen, and she is too lovely. Her hair is 
like a red-gold cloak, and her eyelashes are 

[98] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
twice as long as mine.” She sighed again, 
and her lips, which were like curved rose- 
petals, unconcealedly quivered. They were 
all so cross about Sir Bruce Norman going 
to India,” she added. 

“ He will come back,” said Emily, be- 
nignly ; “ but he may be too late. Has 
he ” — ingenuously — seen Alix ? ” 

Agatha flushed oddly this time. Her deli- 
cate skin registered every emotion exqui- 
sitely. He has seen her, but she was in 
the school-room, and — I don’t think — ” 
She did not finish, but stopped un- 
easily, and sat and gazed out of the open 
window into the park. She did not look 
happy. 

The episode of Sir Bruce Norman was 
‘brief and even vague. It had begun well. 
Sir Bruce had met the beauty at a ball, and 
LofC. [99] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
they had danced together more than once. 
Sir Bruce had attractions other than his old 
baronetcy and his coal-mines. He was a 
good-looking person, with a laughing brown 
eye and a nice wit. He had danced charm- 
ingly and paid gay compliments. He would 
have done immensely well. Agatha had 
liked him. Emily sometimes thought she 
had liked him very much. Her mother had 
liked him and had thought he was attracted. 
But after a number of occasions of agreeable 
meetings, they had encountered each other 
on the lawn at Goodwood, and he had an- 
nounced that he was going to India. Forth- 
with he had gone, and Emily had gathered 
that somehow Lady Agatha had been con- 
sidered somewhat to blame. Her people 
were not vulgar enough to express this 
frankly, but she had felt it. Her younger 

[ lOO ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
sisters had, upon the whale, made her feel 
it most. It had been borne in upon her that 
if Alix, or Millicent with the red-gold cloak, 
or even Eve, who was a gipsy, had been 
given such a season and such Doucet frocks, 
they would have combined them with their 
wonderful complexions and lovely little chins 
and noses in such a manner as would at 
least have prevented desirable acquaintances 
from feeling free to take P. and O. steamers 
to Bombay. 

In her letter of this morning, Millicent’s 
temper had indeed got somewhat the better 
of her taste and breeding, and lovely Agatha 
had cried large tears. So it was comforting 
to be told that Lord Walderhurst had said 
such an extremely amiable thing. If he 
was not young, he was really very nice, and 
there were exalted persons who absolutely 
[ ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
had rather a fad for him. It would be ex- 
ceptionally brilliant. 

The brisk walk was taken, and Lady 

Agatha returned from it blooming. She was 

/ 

adorable at dinner, and in the evening gath- 
ered an actual court about her. She was all 
in pink, and a wreath of little pink wild roses 
lay close about her head, making her, with 
her tall young slimness, look like a Botti- 
celli nymph. Emily saw that Lord Walder- 
hurst looked at her a great deal. He sat on 
an extraordinarily comfortable corner seat, 
and stared through his monocle. 

Lady Maria always gave her Emily plenty 
to do. She had a nice taste in floral ar- 
rangement, and early in her visit it had 
fallen into her hands as a duty to do ” 
the flowers. 

The next morning she was in the gardens 

C 102 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
early, gathering roses with the dew on them, 
and was in the act of cutting some adorable 
Mrs. Sharman Crawfords,” when she found 
it behoved her to let down her carefully 
tucked up petticoats, as the Marquis of Wal- 
derhurst was walking straight toward her. 
An instinct told her that he wanted to talk 
to her about Lady Agatha Slade. 

You get up earlier than Lady Agatha,” 
he remarked, after he had wished her Good 
morning.” 

She is oftener invited to the country 
than I am,” she answered. ‘‘When I have 
a country holiday, I want to spend every 
moment of it out of doors. And the morn- 
ings are so lovely. They are not like this 
in Mortimer Street.” 

“ Do you live in Mortimer Street ? ” 

“ Yes.” 


[ »o3 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
“ Do you like It ? ” 

“ I am very comfortable. I am fortunate 
in having a nice landlady. She and her 
daughter are very kind to me.” 

The morning was indeed heavenly. The 
masses of flowers were drenched with dew, 
and the already hot sun was drawing fra- 
grance from them and filling the warm air 
with it. The marquis, with his monocle 
fixed, looked up into the cobalt-blue sky and 
among the trees, where a wood-dove or two 
cooed with musical, softness. 

^^Yes,” he observed, with a glance which 
swept the scene, it is different from Mor- 
timer Street, I suppose. Are you fond of 
the country ? ” 

Oh, yes,” sighed Emily ; oh, yes ! ” 
She was not a specially articulate person. 
She could not have conveyed in words all 

[ 104] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
that her Oh, yes ! ” really meant of simple 
love for and joy in rural sights and sounds 
and scents. But when she lifted her big 
kind hazel eyes to him, the earnestness 
of her emotion made them pathetic, as 
the unspeakableness of her pleasures often 
did. 

Lord Walderhurst gazed at her through 
the monocle with an air he sometimes had 
of taking her measure without either unkind- 
liness or particular interest. 

Is Lady Agatha fond of the country ? ” 
he inquired. 

She is fond of everything that is beauti- 
ful,” she replied. Her nature is as lovely 
as her face, I think.” 

‘Ts it? ” 

Emily walked a step or two away to a 
rose climbing up the gray-red wall, and 

[>05] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
began to clip off blossoms, which tumbled 
sweetly into her basket. 

She seems lovely in everything,” she 
said, in disposition and manner and — 
everything. She never seems to disappoint 
one or make mistakes.” 

“You are fond of her ? ” 

“ She has been so kind to me.” 

“You often say people are kind to you.” 

Emily paused and felt a trifle confused. 
Realising that she was not a clever person, 
and being a modest one, she began to wonder 
if she was given to a parrot-phrase which made 
her tiresome. She blushed up to her ears. 

“People are kind,” she said hesitatingly. 
“I — you see, I have nothing to give, and I 
always seem to be receiving.” 

“ What luck ! ” remarked his lordship, 
calmly gazing at her. 

[106] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

He made her feel rather awkward, and 
she was at once relieved and sorry when he 
walked away to join another early riser who 
had come out upon the lawn. For some 
mysterious reason Emily Fox-Seton liked 
him. Perhaps his magnificence and the 
constant talk she had heard of him had 
warmed her imagination. He had never 
said anything particularly intelligent to her, 
but she felt as if he had. He was a rather 
silent man, but never looked stupid. He had 
made some good speeches in the House of 
Lords, not brilliant, but sound and of a dig- 
nified respectability. He had also written 
two pamphlets. Emily had an enormous 
respect for intellect, and frequently, it must 
be admitted, for the thing which passed for 
it. She was not exacting. 

During her stay at Mallowe in the sum- 

[ 107] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
mer, Lady Maria always gave a village treat. 
She had given it for forty years, and it was 
a lively function. Several hundred wildly 
joyous village children were fed to repletion 
with exhilarating buns and cake and tea in 
mugs, after which they ran races for prizes, 
and were entertained in various ways, with 
the aid of such of the house-party as were 
benevolently inclined to make themselves 
useful. 

Everybody was not so inclined, though 
people always thought the thing amusing. 
Nobody objected to looking on, and some 
were agreeably stimulated by the general 
sense of festivity. But Emily Fox-Seton 
was found by Lady Maria to be invaluable 
on this occasion. It was so easy, without 
the least sense of ill-feeling, to give her all 
the drudgery to do. There was plenty of 

C >o8] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
drudgery, though it did not present itself to 
Emily Fox-Seton in that light. She no more 
realised that she was giving Lady Maria a 
good deal for her money, so to speak, than 
she realised that her ladyship, though an 
amusing and delightful, was an absolutely sel- 
fish and inconsiderate old woman. So long 
as Emily Fox-Seton did not seem obviously 
tired, it would not have occurred to Lady 
Maria that she could be so; that, after all, 
her legs and arms were mere human flesh 
and blood, that her substantial feet were 
subject to the fatigue unending trudging to 
and fro induces. Her ladyship was simply 
delighted that the preparations went so well, 
that she could turn to Emily for service and 
always find her ready. Emily made lists and 
calculations, she worked out plans and made 
purchases. She interviewed the village ma- 

[ 109] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
trons who made the cake and buns, and 
boiled the tea in bags in a copper; she 
found the women who could be engaged to 
assist in cutting cake and bread-and-butter 
and helping to serve it; she ordered the put- 
ting up of tents and forms and tables; the 
innumerable things to be remembered she 
called to mind. 

“Really, Emily,” said Lady Maria, “I 
don’t know how I have done this thing for 
forty years without you. I must always 
have you at Mallowe for the treat.” 

Emily was of the genial nature which 
rejoices upon even small occasions, and is 
invariably stimulated to pleasure by the 
festivities of others. The festal atmosphere 
was a delight to her. In her numberless 
errands to the village, the sight of the excite- 
ment in the faces of the children she passed 

[ no] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

on her way to this cottage and that filled 
her eyes with friendly glee and wreathed her 
face with smiles. When she went into the 
cottage where the cake was being baked, 
children hovered about in groups and nudged 
each other, giggling. They hung about, 
partly through thrilled interest, and partly 
because their joy made them eager to courtesy 
to her as she came out, the obeisance seem- 
ing to identify them even more closely 
with the coming treat. They grinned and 
beamed rosily, and Emily smiled at them and 
nodded, uplifted by a pleasure almost as in- 
fantile as their own. She was really enjoy- 
ing herself so honestly that she did not 
realise how hard she worked during the days 
before the festivity. She was really ingeni- 
ous, and invented a number of new methods 
of entertainment. It was she who, with the 

[III] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
aid of a couple of gardeners, transformed 
the tents into bowers of green boughs and 
arranged the decorations of the tables and 
the park gates. 

‘‘ What a lot of walking you do ! ’’ Lord 
Walderhurst said to her once, as she passed 
the group on the lawn. Do you know 
how many hours you have been on your 
feet to-day ? ” 

‘T like it,” she answered, and, as she 
hurried by, she saw that he was sitting a 
shade nearer to Lady Agatha than she had 
ever seen him sit before, and that Agatha, 
under a large hat of white gauze frills, was 
looking like a seraph, so sweet and shining 
were her eyes, so flower-fair her face. She 
looked actually happy. 

Perhaps he has been saying things,” 
Emily thought. “ How happy she will be ! 

[ ” 2 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
He has such a nice pair of eyes. He would 
make a woman very happy.” A faint sigh 
fluttered from her lips. She was beginning 
to be physically tired, and was not yet quite 
aware of it. If she had not been physically 
tired, she would not even vaguely have had, 
at this moment, recalled to her mind the 
fact that she was not of the women to whom 

things ” are said and to whom things 
happen. 

‘‘Emily Fox-Seton,” remarked Lady Maria, 
fanning herself, as it was frightfully hot, 
“ has the most admirable effect on me. She 
makes me feel generous. I should like to 
present her with the smartest things from 
the wardrobes of all my relations.” 

“ Do you give her clothes ? ” asked WaL 
derhurst. 

“ I have n’t any to spare. But I know 

s [113J 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
they would be useful to her. The things 
she wears are touching ; they are so well 
contrived, and produce such a decent effect 
with so little.” 

Lord Walderhurst inserted his monocle 
and gazed after the straight, well-set-up 
back of the disappearing Miss Fox-Seton. 

I think,” said Lady Agatha, gently, 
that she is really handsome.” 

‘‘So she is,” admitted Walderhurst — 
“ quite a good-looking woman.” 

That night Lady Agatha repeated the 
amiability to Emily, whose grateful amaze- 
ment really made her blush. 

“ Lord Walderhurst knows Sir Bruce Nor- 
man,” said Agatha. “Isn’t it strange? 
He spoke of him to me to-day. He says 
he is clever.” 

“ You had a nice talk this afternoon, 

[iH] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
hadn’t yoyu ? ” said Emily. ‘‘You both 
looked so — so — as if you were enjoying 
yourselves when I passed.” 

“ Did he look as if he were enjoying him- 
self? He was very agreeable. I did not 
know he could be so agreeable.” 

“ I have never seen him look as 
much pleased,” answered Emily Fox-Seton. 
“Though he always looks as if he liked 
talking to you, Lady Agatha. That large 
white gauze garden-hat ” — reflectively — 
“ is so very becoming.” 

“ It was very expensive,” sighed lovely 
Agatha. “ And they last such a short time. 
Mamma said it really seemed almost criminal 
to buy it.” 

“ How delightful it will be,” remarked 
cheering Emily, “ when — when you need 
not think of things like that ! ” 

[««s] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Oh ! ” — with another sigh, this time a 
catch of the breath, — it would be like 
Heaven ! People don’t know \ they think 
girls are frivolous when they care, and that 
it is n’t serious. But when one knows one 
must have things, — that they are like bread, 

— it is awful ! ” 

“ The things you wear really matter.” 
Emily was bringing all her powers to bear 
upon the subject, and with an anxious kind- 
ness which was quite angelic. Each dress 
makes you look like another sort of picture. 
Have you ” — contemplatively — anything 
quite different to wear to-night and to- 
morrow ? ” 

‘‘ I have two evening dresses I have not 
worn here yet ” — a little hesitatingly. I 

— well, I saved them. One is a very thin 
black one with silver on it. It has a trem- 

C"6] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
bling silver butterfly for the shoulder, and 
one for the hair.” 

Oh, put that on to-night ! ” said Emily, 
eagerly. When you come down to dinner 
you will look so — so new ! I always think 
that to see a very fair person suddenly for 
the first time all in black gives one a kind 
of delighted start — though start is n’t the 
word, quite. Do put it on.” 

Lady Agatha put it on. Emily Fox-Seton 
came into her room to help to add the last 
touches to her beauty before she went down 
to dinner. She suggested that the fair hair 
should be dressed even higher and more 
lightly than usual, so that the silver butterfly 
should poise the more airily over the knot, 
with its quivering, outstretched wings. She 
herself poised the butterfly high upon the 
shoulder. 


[ ”7 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Oh, it is lovely ! ” she exclaimed, draw- 
ing back to gaze at the girl. Do let me 
go down a moment or so before you do, 
so that I can see you come into the room.” 

She was sitting in a chair quite near Lord 
Walderhurst when her charge entered. She 
saw him really give something quite like a 
start when Agatha appeared. His monocle, 
which had been in his eye, fell out of it, and 
he picked it up by its thin cord and replaced it. 

Psyche ! ” she heard him say in his odd 
voice, which seemed merely to make a state- 
ment without committing him to an opinion 

— ‘‘Psyche!” 

He did not say it to her or to any one 
else. It was simply a kind of exclamation, 

— appreciative and perceptive without being 
enthusiastic, — and it was curious. He talked 
to Agatha nearly all the evening. 

[118] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

Emily came to Lady Agatha before she 
retired, looking even a little flushed. 

What are you going to wear at the treat 
to-morrow ? ” she asked. 

“ A white muslin, with entre-deux of lace, 
and the gauze garden-hat, and a white para- 
sol and shoes.” 

Lady Agatha looked a little nervous ; her 
pink fluttered in her cheek. 

And to-morrow night ? ” said Emily, 
have a very pale blue. Won’t you 
sit down, dear Miss Fox-Seton ? ” 

We must both go to bed and sleep. You 
must not get tired.” 

But she sat down for a few minutes, be- 
cause she saw the girl’s eyes asking her to 
do it. 

The afternoon post had brought a more 
than usually depressing letter from Curzon 

C ”9] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Street. Lady Claraway was at her motherly 
wits’ ends, and was really quite touching in 
her distraction. A dressmaker was entering 
a suit. The thing would get into the papers, 
of course. 

Unless something happens, something to 
save us by staving off things, we shall have 
to go to Castle Clare at once. It will be all 
over. No girl could be presented with such 
a thing in the air. They don’t like it.” 

‘‘They,” of course, meant persons whose 
opinions made London’s society’s law. 

“To go to Castle Clare,” faltered Agatha, 
“ will be like being sentenced to starve to 
death. Alix and Hilda and Millicent and 
Eve and I will be starved, quite slowly, for 
the want of the things that make girls’ lives 
bearable when they have been born in a 
certain class. And even if the most splendid 
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.■'li <-1- ' 



THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
thing happened in three or four years, it 
would be too late for us four — almost too 
late for Eve. If you are out of London, 
of course you are forgotten. People can’t 
help forgetting. Why should n’t they, when 
there are such crowds of new girls every 
year ? ” 

Emily Fox-Seton was sweet. She was 
quite sure that they would not be obliged to 
go to Castle Clare. Without being indeli- 
cate, she was really able to bring hope to 
the fore. She said a good deal of the black 
gauze dress and the lovely effect of the silver 
butterflies. 

I suppose it was the butterflies which 
made Lord Walderhurst say ‘ Psyche ! 
Psyche ! ’ when he first saw you,” she added, 
en passant, 

‘‘ Did he say that ? ” And immediately 

[ I2I 3 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Lady Agatha looked as if she had not in- 
tended to say the words. 

“Yes,” answered Emily, hurrying on with 
a casual air which had a good deal of tact 
in it. “And black makes you so wonderfully 
fair and aerial. You scarcely look quite real 
in it ; you might float away. But you must 
go to sleep now.” 

Lady Agatha went with her to the door of 
the room to bid her good-night. Her eyes 
looked like those of a child who might pres- 
ently cry a little. 

“Oh, Miss Fox-Seton,” she said, in a very 
young voice, “ you are so kind ! ” 



[ " 2*3 



HE parts of the park 
nearest to the house 
already presented a 
busy aspect when 
Miss Fox-Seton 
passed through the 
gardens the following 
morning. Tables were being put up, and 
baskets of bread and cake and groceries were 
being carried into the tent where the tea was 
to be prepared. The workers looked inter- 
ested and good-humoured ; the men touched 
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THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
their hats as Emily appeared, and the women 
courtesied smilingly. They had all discov- 
ered that she was amiable and to be relied 
on in her capacity of her ladyship’s repre- 
sentative. 

She’s a worker, that Miss Fox-Seton,” 
one said to the other. I never seen one 
that was a lady fall to as she does. Ladies, 
even when they means well, has a way of 
standing about and telling you to do things 
without seeming to know quite how they 
ought to be done. She’s coming to help 
with the bread-and-butter-cutting herself this 
morning, and she put up all them packages 
of sweets yesterday with her own hands. She 
did ’em up in different-coloured papers, and 
tied ’em with bits of ribbon, because she said 
she knowed children was prouder of coloured 
things than plain — they was like that. And 
[124] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
so they are : a bit of red or blue goes a long 
way with a child.” 

Emily cut bread-and-butter and cake, and 
placed seats and arranged toys on tables all 
the morning. The day was hot, though 
beautiful, and she was so busy that she had 
scarcely time for her breakfast. The house- 
hold party was in the gayest spirits. Lady 
Maria was in her most amusing mood. She 
had planned a drive to some interesting 
ruins for the afternoon of the next day, and 
a dinner-party for the evening. Her favourite 
neighbours had just returned to their country- 
seat five miles away, and they were coming 
to the dinner, to her great satisfaction. 
Most of her neighbours bored her, and she 
took them in doses at her dinners, as she 
would have taken medicine. But the Lock- 
yers were young and good-looking and 
[ 12 ? ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
clever, and she was always glad when they 
came to Loche during her stay at Mallowe. 

There is not a frump or a bore among 
them,” she said. ‘Tn the country people 
are usually frumps when they are not bores, 
and bores when they are not frumps, and I 
am in danger of becoming both mvself. Six 
weeks of unalloyed dinner-parties, composed 
of certain people I know, would make me 
begin to wear moreen petticoats and talk 
about the deplorable condition of London 
society.” 

She led all her flock out on to the lawn 
under the ilex-trees after breakfast. 

Let us go and encourage industry,” she 
said. We will watch Emily Fox-Seton 
working. She is an example.” 

Curiously enough, this was Miss Cora 
Brooke’s day. She found herself actually 
. [126] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
walking across the lawn with Lord Wal- 
derhurst by her side. She did not know 
how it happened, but it seemed to occur 
accidentally. 

‘^We never talk to each other,” he said. 

“Well,” answered Cora, “we have talked 
to other people a good deal — at least I have.” 

“Yes, you have talked a good deal,” said 
the marquis. 

“ Does that mean I have talked too much ? ” 

He surveyed her prettiness through his 
glass. Perhaps the holiday stir in the air 
gave him a festive moment. 

“ It means that you have n’t talked enough 
to me. You have devoted yourself too much 
to the laying low of young Heriot.” 

She laughed a trifle saucily. 

“ You are a very independent young lady,” 
remarked Walderhurst, with a lighter man- 
[ 1 ^ 7 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

ner than usual. You ought to say some- 
thing deprecatory or — a little coy, perhaps.” 

I sha’n’t,” said Cora, composedly. 

Sha’n’t or won’t ? ” he inquired. They 
are both bad words for little girls — or young 
ladies — to use to their elders.” 

Both,” said Miss Cora Brooke, with a 
slightly pleased flush. Let us go over to 
the tents and see what poor Emily Fox- 
Seton is doing.” 

Poor Emily P"ox-Seton,” said the mar- 
quis, non-committally. 

They went, but they did not stay long. 
The treat was taking form. Emily Fox- 
Seton was hot and deeply engaged. People 
were coming to her for orders. She had a 
thousand things to do and to superintend 
the doing of. The prizes for the races and 
the presents for the children must be ar- 
[ *^ 8 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
ranged in order : things for boys and things 
for girls, presents for little children and 
presents for big ones. Nobody must be 
missed, and no one must be given the wrong 
thing. 

‘‘ It would be dreadful, you know,” Emily 
said to the two when they came into her 
tent and began to ask questions, if a big 
boy should get a small wooden horse, or a 
little baby should be given a cricket bat and 
ball. Then it would be so disappointing 
if a tiny girl got a work-box and a big one 
got a doll. One has to get things in order. 
They look forward to this so, and it ’s heart- 
breaking to a child to be disappointed, is n't 
it?” 

Walderhurst gazed uninspiringly. 

Who did this for Lady Maria when you 
were not here ? ” he inquired. 

[ 129 ] 


9 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Oh, other people. But she says it was 
tiresome.” Then with ari illumined smile : 

She has asked me to Mallowe for the 
next twenty years for the treats. She is so 
kind.” 

Maria is a kind woman ” — with what 
seemed to Emily delightful amiability. ^‘She 
is kind to her treats and she is kind to 
Maria Bayne.” 

‘‘She is kind to mef said Emily. “You 
don’t know how I am enjoying this.” 

“ That woman enjoys everything,” Lord 
Walderhurst said when he walked away with 
Cora. “ What a temperament to have ! I 
would give ten thousand a year for it.” 

“She has so little,” said Cora, “ that 
everything seems beautiful to her. One 
does n’t wonder, either. She ’s very nice. 
Mother and I quite admire her. We are 
[ 130] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
thinking of inviting her to New York and 
giving her a real good time.” 

She would enjoy New York.” 

‘‘Have you ever been there, Lord Wal- 
derhurst ? ” 

“ No.” 

“ You ought to come, really. So many 
Englishmen come now, and they all seem to 
like it.” 

“ Perhaps I will come,” said Walderhurst. 
“ I have been thinking of it. One is tired 
of the Continent and one knows India. 
One does n’t know Fifth Avenue, and Cen- 
tral Park, and the Rocky Mountains.” 

One might try them,” suggested pretty 
Miss Cora. 

This certainly was her day. Lord Wal- 
derhurst took her and her mother out in his 
own particular high phaeton before lunch. 
[ i3‘ ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
He was fond of driving, and his own phaeton 
and horses had come to Mallowe with him. 
He took only his favourites out, and though 
he bore himself on this occasion with a calm 
air, the event caused a little smiling flurry 
on the lawn. At least, when the phaeton 
spun down the avenue with Miss Brooke and 
her mother looking slightly flushed and thrilled 
in their high seats of honour, several people 
exchanged glances and raised eye-brows. 

Lady Agatha went to her room and wrote 
a long letter to Curzon Street. Mrs. Ralph 
talked about the problem-play to young He- 
riot and a group of others. 

The afternoon, brilliant and blazing, 
brought new visitors to assist by their pres- 
ence at the treat. Lady Maria always had 
a large house-party, and added guests from 
the neighbourhood to make for gaiety. 

C >32 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

At two o’clock a procession of village 
children and their friends and parents, headed 
by the village band, marched up the avenue 
and passed before the house on their way 
to their special part of the park. Lady 
Maria and her guests stood upon the broad 
steps and welcomed the jocund crowd, as 
it moved by, with hospitable bows and nods 
and becks and wreathed smiles. Everybody 
was in a delighted good-humour. 

As the villagers gathered in the park, the 
house-party joined them by way of the gar- 
dens. A conjurer from London gave an 
entertainment under a huge tree, and chil- 
dren found white rabbits taken from their 
pockets and oranges from their caps, with 
squeals of joy and shouts of laughter. Lady 
Maria’s guests walked about and looked on, 
laughing with the children. 

[ 133 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

The great affair of tea followed the per- 
formance. No treat is fairly under way 
until the children are filled to the brim with 
tea and buns and cake, principally cake in 
plummy wedges. 

Lady Agatha and Mrs. Ralph handed cake 
along rows of children seated on the grass. 
Miss Brooke was talking to Lord Walder- 
hurst when the work began. She had pop- 
pies in her hat and carried a poppy-coloured 
parasol, and sat under a tree, looking very 
alluring. 

I ought to go and help to hand cake,” 
she said. 

‘‘ My cousin Maria ought to do it,” re- 
marked Lord Walderhurst, but she will 
not — neither shall 1. Tell me something 
about the elevated railroad and Five-Hun- 
dred-and-Fifty-Thousandth Street.” 

[> 34 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

He had a slightly rude, gracefully languid 
air, which Cora Brooke found somewhat 
impressive, after all. 

Emily Fox-Seton handed cake and regu- 
lated supplies with cheerful tact and good 
spirits. When the older people were given 
their tea, she moved about their tables, attend- 
ing to every one. She was too heart-whole 
in her interest in her hospitalities to find time 
to join Lady Maria and her party at the table 
under the ilex-trees. She ate some bread- 
and-butter and drank a cup of tea while she 
talked to some old women she had made 
friends with. She was really enjoying her- 
self immensely, though occasionally she was 
obliged to sit down for a few moments just 
to rest her tired feet. The children came 
to her as to an omnipotent and benign being. 
She knew where the toys were kept and 

[ 135 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
what prizes were to be given for the races. 
She represented law and order and bestowal. 
The other ladies walked about in wonderful 
dresses, smiling and exalted, the gentlemen 
aided the sports in an amateurish way and 
made patrician jokes among themselves, but 
this one lady seemed to be part of the treat 
itself. She was not so grandly dressed as 
the others, — her dress was only blue linen 
wMth white bands on it, — and she had only 
a sailor hat with a buckle and bow, but she 
was of her ladyship’s world of London 
people, nevertheless, and they liked her more 
than they had ever liked a lady before. It 
was a fine treat, and she seemed to have 
made it so. There had never been quite such 
a varied and jovial treat at Mallowe before. 

The afternoon waxed and waned. The 
children played games and raced and rejoiced 

[g6] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

until their young limbs began to fail them. 
The older people sauntered about or sat in 
groups to talk and listen to the village band. 
Lady Maria’s visitors, having had enough of 
rural festivities, went back to the gardens in 
excellent spirits, to talk and to watch a game 
of tennis which had taken form on the court. 

Emily Fox-Seton’s pleasure had not abated, 
but her colour had done so. Her limbs ached 
and her still-smiling face was pale, as she 
stood under the beech-tree regarding the final 
ceremonies of the festal day, to preside over 
which Lady Maria and her party returned 
from their seats under the ilex-trees. The 
National Anthem was sung loudly, and there 
were three tremendous cheers given for her 
ladyship. They were such joyous and 
hearty cheers that Emily was stirred almost 
to emotional tears. At all events, her hazel 
[ *37 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
eyes looked nice and moistly bright. She 
was an easily moved creature. 

Lord Walderhurst stood near Lady Maria 
and looked pleased also. Emily saw him 
speak to her ladyship and saw Lady Maria 
smile. Then he stepped forward, with his 
non-committal air and his monocle glaring 
calmly in his eye. 

Boys and girls,’’ he said in a clear, far- 
reaching voice, “ I want you to give three of 
the biggest cheers you are capable of for 
the lady who has worked to make your treat 
the success it has been. Her ladyship tells 
me she has never had such a treat before. 
Three cheers for Miss Fox-Seton.” 

Emily gave a gasp and felt a lump rise in 
her throat. She felt as if she had been with- 
out warning suddenly changed into a royal 
personage, and she scarcely knew what to do. 
[ G8] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHI9NESS 

The whole treat, juvenile and adult, male 
and female, burst into three cheers which 
were roars and bellows. Hats and caps 
were waved and tossed into the air, and 
every creature turned toward her as she 
blushed and bowed in tremulous gratitude 
and delight. 

Oh, Lady Maria ! oh. Lord Walder- 
hurst ! ” she said, when she managed to get 
to them, how kind you are to me ! ” 



[ 139 ] 



FTER she had taken her 
early tea in the morn- 
ing, Emily Fox-Seton 
lay upon her pillows 
and gazed out upon the 
tree-branches near her 
window, in a state of bliss. She was tired, 
but happy. How well everything had “gone 
off” ! How pleased Lady Maria had been, 
and how kind of Lord Walderhurst to ask 
the villagers to give three cheers for her- 
self! She had never dreamed of such a 
thing. It was the kind of attention not usu- 

[ 140 ] 



THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
ally offered to her. She smiled her childlike 
smile and blushed at the memory of it. Her 
impression of the world was that people were 
really very amiable, as a rule. They were 
always good to her, at least, she thought, 
and it did not occur to her that if she had 
not paid her way so remarkably well by 
being useful they might have been less 
agreeable. Never ojice had she doubted that 
Lady Maria was the most admirable and 
generous of human beings. She was not 
aware in the least that her ladyship got a 
good deal out of her. In justice to her 
ladyship, it may be said that she was not 
wholly aware of it herself, and that Emily 
absolutely enjoyed being made use of. 

This morning, however, when she got up, 
she found herself more tired than she ever 
remembered being before, and it may be 
[ ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

easily argued that a woman who runs about 
London on other people’s errands often 
knows what it is to be aware of aching 
limbs. She laughed a little when she dis- 
covered that her feet were actually rather 
swollen, and that she must wear a pair of 
her easiest slippers. 

I must sit down as much as I can 
to-day,” she thought. And yet, with the 
dinner-party and the excursion this morning, 
there may be a number of little things Lady 
Maria would like me to do.” 

There were, indeed, numbers of things 
Lady Maria was extremely glad to ask 
her to do. The drive to the ruins was 
to be made before lunch, because some 
of the guests felt that an afternoon jaunt 
would leave them rather fagged for the 
dinner-party in the evening. Lady Maria 

[ 142 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
was not going, and, as presently became 
apparent, the carriages would be rather 
crowded if Miss Fox-Seton joined the party. 
On the whole, Emily was not sorry to have 
an excuse for remaining at home, and so the 
carriages drove away comfortably filled, and 
Lady Maria and Miss Fox-Seton watched 
their departure. 

I have no intention of having my vener- 
able bones rattled over hill and dale the day 
I give a dinner-party,” said her ladyship. 

Please ring the bell, Emily. I want to 
make sure of the fish. Fish is one of the 
problems of country life. Fishmongers are 
demons, and when they live five miles from 
one they can arouse the most powerful 
human emotions.” 

Mallowe Court was at a distance from the 
country town delightful in its effects upon 
[ ‘43 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
the rusticity of the neighbourhood, but appal- 
ling when considered in connection with 
fish. One could not dine without fish ; the 
town was small and barren of resources, and 
the one fishmonger of weak mind and unre- 
liable nature. 

The footman who obeyed the summons 
of the bell informed her ladyship that the 
cook was rather anxious about the fish, as 
usual. The fishmonger had been a little 
doubtful as to whether he could supply her 
needs, and his cart never arrived until half- 
past twelve. 

Great goodness ! ” exclaimed her lady- 
ship when the man retired. “ What a sit- 
uation if we found ourselves without fish ! 
Old General Barnes is the most ferocious old 
gourmand in England, and he loathes people 
who give him bad dinners. We are all 
[ H4] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
rather afraid of him, the fact is, and I will 
own that I am vain about my dinners. That 
is the last charm nature leaves a woman, the 
power to give decent dinners. I shall be 
fearfully annoyed if any ridiculous thing 
happens.” 

They sat in the morning-room together 
writing notes and talking, and, as half-past 
twelve drew near, watching for the fish- 
monger’s cart. Once or twice Lady Maria 
spoke of Lord Walderhurst. 

He is an interesting creature, to my 
mind,” she said. I have always rather 
liked him. He has original ideas, though he 
is not in the least brilliant. I believe he 
talks more freely to me, on the whole, than 
to most people, though I can’t say he has a 
particularly good opinion of me. He stuck 
his glass in his eye and stared at me last 

10 [ 145 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
night, in that weird way of his, and said to 
me, ‘ Maria, in an ingenuous fashion of your 
own, you are the most abominably selfish 
woman I ever beheld.’ Still, I know he rather 
likes me. I said to him : ‘ That is n’t quite 
true, James. I am selfish, but I ’m not 
abominably selfish. Abominably selfish people 
always have nasty tempers, and no one can 
accuse me of having a nasty temper. I have 
the disposition of a bowl of bread and milk.’ ” 
“ Emily,” — as wheels rattled up the 
avenue, — “ is that the fishmonger’s cart ? ” 
“ No,” answered Emily at the window ; 
“ it is the butcher.” 

“ His attitude toward the women here has 
made my joy,” Lady Maria proceeded, smil- 
ing over the deep-sea fishermen’s knitted 
helmet she had taken up. “ He behaves 
beautifully to them all, but not one of them 

[ h6] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
has really a leg to stand on as far as he is 
responsible for it. But I will tell you some- 
thing, Emily.” And she paused. 

Miss Fox-Seton waited with interested eyes. 

“ He is thinking of bringing the thing to 
an end and marrying some woman. I feel it 
in my bones.” 

‘‘Do you think so?” exclaimed Emily. 
“ Oh, I cant help hoping — ” But she 
paused also. 

“You hope it will be Agatha Slade,” 
Lady Maria ended for her. “ Well, per- 
haps it will be. I sometimes think it is 
Agatha, if it ’s any one. And yet I ’m not 
sure. One never could be sure with Wal- 
derhurst. He has always had a trick of 
keeping more than his mouth shut. I won- 
der if he could have any other woman up 
his sleeve ? ” 


[H7] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

“ Why do you think — ” began Emily. 

Lady Maria laughed. 

“For an odd reason. The Walderhursts 
have a ridiculously splendid ring in the 
family, which they have a way of giving to 
the women they become engaged to. It’s 
ridiculous because — well, because a ruby as 
big as a trousers’ button is ridiculous. You 
can’t get over that. There is a story con- 
nected with this one — centuries and things, 
and something about the woman the first 
Walderhurst had it made for. She was a 
Dame Something or Other who had snubbed 
the King for being forward, and the snub- 
bing was so good for him that he thought 
she was a saint and gave the ruby for her 
betrothal. Well, by the merest accident I 
found Walderhurst had sent his man to town 
for it. It came two days ago.” 

[ ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

Oh, how interesting ! ” said Emily, 
thrilled. ‘Tt must mean something.” 

“ It is rather a joke. Wheels again, Emily. 
Is that the fishmonger ? ” 

Emily went to the window once more. 
Yes,” she answered, his name is 

Buggle.” 

His name is Buggle,” said Lady Maria, 
and we are saved.” 

But five minutes later the cook herself 
appeared at the morning-room door. She 
was a stout person, who panted, and respect- 
fully removed beads of perspiration from her 
brow with a clean handkerchief. She was 
as nearly pale as a heated person of her 
weight may be. 

And what has happened now, cook ? ” 
asked Lady Maria. 

That Buggle, your ladyship,” said cook, 
[ H9 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
says your ladyship can’t be no sorrier 
than he is, but when fish goes bad in a 
night it can’t be made fresh in the morn- 
ing. He brought it that I might see it for 
myself, and it is in a state as could not be 
used by any one. I was that upset, your 
ladyship, that I felt like I must come and 
explain myself.” 

What can be done ? ” exclaimed Lady 
Maria. Emily, do suggest something.” 

‘‘We can’t even be sure,” said the cook, 
“ that Batch has what would suit us. Batch 
sometimes has it, but he is the fishmonger at 
Maundell, and that is four miles away, and 
we are short-’anded, your ladyship, now the 
’ouse is so full, and not a servant that could 
be spared.” 

“Dear me!” said Lady Maria. “Emily, 
this is really enough to drive one quite mad. 

[ 150 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
If everything was not out of the stables, I 
know you would drive over to Maundell. 
You are such a good walker,” — catching a 
gleam of hope, — do you think you could 
walk ? ” 

Emily tried to look cheerful. Lady 
Maria’s situation was really an awful one 
for a hostess. It would not have mattered 
in the least if her strong, healthy body had 
not been so tired. She was an excellent 
walker, and ordinarily eight miles would 
have meant nothing in the way of fatigue. 
She was kept in good training by her walking 
in town. Springy moorland swept by fresh 
breezes was not like London streets. 

I think I can manage it,” she said nice- 
temperedly. If I had not run about so 
much yesterday it would be a mere nothing. 
You must have the fish, of course. I will 
[ ISI ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
walk over the moor to Maundell and tell 
Batch it must be sent at once. Then I 
will come back slowly. I can rest on the 
heather by the way. The moor is lovely in 
the afternoon.” 

‘‘ You dear soul ! ” Lady Maria broke forth. 

What a boon you are to a woman ! ” 

She felt quite grateful. There arose in 
her mind an impulse to invite Emily Fox- 
Seton to remain the rest of her life with her, 
but she was too experienced an elderly lady 
to give way to impulses. She privately re- 
solved, however, that she would have her a 
good deal in South Audley Street, and would 
make her some decent presents. 

When Emily Fox-Seton, attired for her 
walk in her shortest brown linen frock and 
shadiest hat, passed through the hall, the 
post-boy was just delivering the midday 
[ "52 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

letters to a footman. The servant presented 
his salver to her with a letter for herself 
lying upon the top of one addressed in Lady 
Claraway’s handwriting ^^To the Lady 
Agatha Slade.” Emily recognised it as one 
of the epistles of many sheets which so often 
made poor Agatha shed slow and depressed 
tears. Her own letter was directed in the 
well-known hand of Mrs. Cupp, and she 
wondered what it could contain. 

I hope the poor things are not in any 
trouble,” she thought. They were afraid 
the young man in the sitting-room was en- 
gaged. If he got married and left them, I 
don’t know what they would do ; he has 
been so regular.” 

Though the day was hot, the weather was 
perfect, and Emily, having exchanged her 
easy slippers for an almost equally easy pair 

[ 153 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
of tan shoes, found her tired feet might still 
be used. Her disposition to make the very 
best of things inspired her to regard even an 
eight-mile walk with courage. The moor- 
land air was so sweet, the sound of the bees 
droning as they stumbled about in the heather 
was such a comfortable, peaceful thing, 
that she convinced herself that she should 
find the four miles to Maundell quite 
agreeable. 

She had so many nice things to think of 
that she temporarily forgot that she had put 
Mrs. Cupp’s letter in her pocket, and was 
half-way across the moor before she re- 
membered it. 

Dear me ! ” she exclaimed when she re- 
called it. I must see what has happened.” 

She opened the envelope and began to read 
as she walked \ but she had not taken many 
[ " 54 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
steps before she uttered an exclamation and 
stopped. 

How very nice for them ! ” she said, 
but she turned rather pale. 

From a worldly point of view the news 
the letter contained was indeed very nice for 
the Cupps, but it put a painful aspect upon 
the simple affairs of poor Miss Fox-Seton. 

‘‘ It is a great piece of news, in one way,” 
wrote Mrs. Cupp, “ and yet me and Jane 
can’t help feeling a bit low at the thought 
of the changes it will make, and us living 
where you won’t be with us, if I may take 
the liberty, miss. My brother William made 
a good bit of money in Australia, but he 
has always been homesick for the old country, 
as he always calls England. His wife was a 
Colonial, and when she died a year ago he 
made up his mind to come home to settle 

[ 15?] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
in Chichester, where he was born. He says 
there ’s nothing like the feeling of a Cathe- 
dral town. He ’s bought such a nice house 
a bit out, with a big garden, and he wants 
me and Jane to come and make a home with 
him. He says he has worked hard all his 
life, and now he means to be comfortable, 
and he can’t be bothered with housekeeping. 
He promises to provide well for us both, 
and he wants us to sell up Mortimer Street, 
and come as quick as possible. But we 
shall miss you, miss, and though her Uncle 
William keeps a trap and everything accord- 
ing, and Jane is grateful for his kindness, 
she broke down and cried hard last night, 
and says to me: ^ Oh, mother, if Miss Fox- 
Seton could just manage to take me as a 
maid, I would rather be it than anything. 
Traps don’t feed the heart, mother, and I ’ve 
[«S6] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
a feeling for Miss Fox-Seton as is perhaps 
unbecoming to my station.’ But we ’ve 
got the men in the house ticketing things, 
miss, and we want to know what we shall 
do with the articles in your bed-sitting- 
room.” 

The friendliness of the two faithful Cupps 
and the humble Turkey-red comforts of the 
bed-sitting-room had meant home to Emily 
Fox-Seton. When she had turned her face 
and her tired feet away from discouraging 
errands and small humiliations and discom- 
forts, she had turned them toward the bed- 
sitting-room, the hot little fire, the small, fat 
black kettle singing on the hob, and the two- 
and-eleven-penny tea-set. Not being given 
to crossing bridges before she reached them, 
she had never contemplated the dreary possi- 
bility that her refuge might be taken away 

C ^57 J 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
from her. She had not dwelt upon the fact 
that she had no other real refuge on earth. 

As she walked among the sun-heated 
heather and the luxuriously droning bees, 
she dwelt upon it now with a suddenly realis- 
ing sense. As it came home to her soul, 
her eyes filled with big tears, which brimmed 
over and rolled down her cheeks. They 
dropped upon the breast of her linen blouse 
and left marks. 

I shall have to find a new bed-sitting- 
room somewhere,” she said, the breast of 
the linen blouse lifting itself sharply. “ It 
will be so different to be in a house with 
strangers. Mrs. Cupp and Jane — ” She 
was obliged to take out her handkerchief at 
that moment. I am afraid I can’t get 
anything respectable for ten shillings a week. 
It was very cheap — and they were so nice!” 
[ G8] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
All her fatigue of the early morning had 
returned. Her feet began to burn and ache, 
and the sun felt almost unbearably hot. 
The mist in her eyes prevented her seeing 
the path before her. Once or twice she 
stumbled over something. 

It seems as if it must be farther than 
four miles,” she said. And then there is 
the walk back. I am tired. But I must 
get on, really.” 



[^ 59 ] 



HE drive to the ruins had 
been a great success. It 
was a drive of just suffi- 
cient length to put people 
in spirits without fatigu- 
ing them. The party 
came back to lunch with delightful appetites. 
Lady Agatha and Miss Cora Brooke had 
pink cheeks. The Marquis of Walderhurst 
had behaved charmingly to both of them. 
He had helped each of them to climb about 
among the ruins, and had taken them both 
up the steep, dark stairway of one of the 
[ i6o ] 




THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
towers, and stood with them looking over 
the turrets into the courtyard and the moat. 
He knew the history of the castle, and could 
point out the banquet-hall and the chapel 
and the serving-places, and knew legends 
about the dungeons. 

He gives us all a turn, mother,” said 
Miss Cora Brooke. He even gave a turn 
yesterday to poor Emily Fox-Seton. He’s 
rather nice.” 

There was a great deal of laughter at 
lunch after their return. Miss Cora Brooke 
was quite brilliant in her gay little sallies. 
But though she was more talkative than 
Lady Agatha, she did not look more bril- 
liant. The letter from Curzon Street had 
not made the beauty shed tears. Her face 
had fallen when it had been handed to her 
on her return, and she had taken it upstairs 

II [ i6i ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
to her room with rather a flagging step. But 
when she came down to lunch she walked 
with the movement of a nymph. Her lovely 
little face wore a sort of tremulous radiance. 
She laughed like a child at every amusing 
thing that was said. She might have been 
ten years old instead of twenty-two, her 
colour, her eyes, her spirits seemed of a 
freshness so infantine. 

She was leaning back in her chair laugh- 
ing enchantingly at one of Miss Brooke’s 
sparkling remarks when Lord Walderhurst, 
who sat next to her, said suddenly, glancing 
round the table : 

“ But where is Miss Fox-Seton ?” 

It was perhaps a significant fact that up 
to this moment nobody had observed her 
absence. 

It was Lady Maria who replied. 

[ 162 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
‘‘ I am almost ashamed to answer/’ she 
said. As I have said before, Emily Fox- 
Seton has become the lodestar of my ex- 
istence. I cannot live without her. She has 
walked over to Maundell to make sure that 
we do not have a dinner-party without fish 
to-night.” 

She has walked over to Maundell,” said 
Lord Walderhurst — ‘‘ after yesterday ? ” 

“ There was not a pair of wheels left in 
the stable,” answered Lady Maria. ‘‘ It is 
disgraceful, of course, but she is a splendid 
walker, and she said she was not too tired 
to do it. It is the kind of thing she ought 
to be given the Victoria Cross for — saving 
one from a dinner-party without fish.” 

The Marquis of Walderhurst took up the 
cord of his monocle and fixed the glass 
rigidly in his eye. 

[163] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

“ It is not only four miles to Maundell/’ 
he remarked, staring at the table-cloth, not 
at Lady Maria, but it is four miles back.” 

By a singular coincidence,” said Lady 
Maria. 

The talk and laughter went on, and the 
lunch also, but Lord Walderhurst, for some 
reason best known to himself, did not finish 
his. For a few seconds he stared at the 
table-cloth, then he pushed aside his nearly 
disposed-of cutlet, then he got up from his 
chair quietly. 

Excuse me, Maria,” he said, and with- 
out further ado went out of the room, and 
walked toward the stables. 

There was excellent fish at Maundell ; 
Batch produced it at once, fresh, sound, and 
desirable. Had she been in her normal 

[164] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
spirits, Emily would have rejoiced at the 
sight of it, and have retraced her four miles 
to Mallowe in absolute jubilation. She 
would have shortened and beguiled her re- 
turn journey by depicting to herself Lady 
Maria’s pleasure and relief. 

But the letter from Mrs. Cupp lay like a 
weight of lead in her pocket. It had given 
her such things to think of as she walked 
that she had been oblivious to heather and 
bees and fleece-bedecked summer-blue sky, 
and had felt more tired than in any tramp 
through London streets that she could call to 
mind. Each step she took seemed to be 
carrying her farther away from the few 
square yards of home the bed-sitting-room 
had represented under the dominion of the 
Cupps. Every moment she recalled more 
strongly that it had been home — home. Of 

C 165 3 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
course it had not been the third-floor back 
room so much as it had been the Cupps who 
made it so, who had regarded her as a sort 
of possession, who had liked to serve her, 
and had done it with actual affection. 

I shall have to find a new place,” she 
kept saying. ‘‘‘I shall have to go among 
quite strange people.” 

She had suddenly a new sense of being 
without resource. That was one of the 
proofs of the curious heaviness of the blow 
the simple occurrence was to her. She felt 
temporarily almost as if there were no other 
lodging-houses in London, though she knew 
that really there were tens of thousands. 
The fact was that though there might be 
other Cupps, or their counterparts, she could 
not make herself believe such a good thing 
possible. She had been physically worn out 
[166] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
before she had read the letter, and its effect 
had been proportionate to her fatigue and 
lack of power to rebound. She was vaguely 
surprised to feel that the tears kept filling 
her eyes and falling on her cheeks in big 
heavy drops. She was obliged to use her 
handkerchief frequently, as if she was sud- 
denly developing a cold in her head. 

I must take care,” she said once, quite 
prosaically, but with more pathos in her 
voice than she was aware of, or I shall 
make my nose quite red.” 

Though Batch was able to supply fish, 
he was unfortunately not able to send it to 
Mallowe. His cart had gone out on a round 
just before Miss Fox-Seton’s arrival, and 
there was no knowing when it would return. 

Then I must carry the fish myself,” said 
Emily. You can put it in a neat basket.” 

[ 167 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
“ I ’m very sorry, miss ; I am, indeed, 
miss,” said Batch, looking hot and pained. 

It will not be heavy,” returned Emily ; 
“and her ladyship must be sure of it for 
the dinner-party.” 

So she turned back to recross the moor 
with a basket of fish on her arm. And she 
was so pathetically unhappy that she felt that 
so long as she lived the odour of fresh fish 
would make her feel sorrowful. She had 
heard of people who were made sorrowful by 
the odour of a flower or the sound of a 
melody, but in her case it would be the smell 
of fresh fish that would make her sad. If 
she had been a person with a sense of 
humour, she might have seen that this was 
thing to laugh at a little. But she was not 
a humorous woman, and just now — 

“ Oh, I shall have to find a new place,” 

[i68] 



^ W*' X 



I » 

V. 


V 


V 


I 




. / 


, \ 


» 


t 


• 4 


i 


f 


r. 


f 


9 



THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
she was thinking, and I have lived in that 
little room for years.” 

The sun got hotter and hotter, and her 
feet became so tired that she could scarcely 
drag one of them after another. She had 
forgotten that she had left Mallowe before 
lunch, and that she ought to have got a cup 
of tea, at least, at Maundell. Before she had 
walked a mile on her way back, she realised 
that she was frightfully hungry and rather 
faint. 

“ There is not even a cottage where I 
could get a glass of water,” she thought. 

The basket, which was really compara- 
tively light, began to feel heavy on her arm, 
and at length she felt sure that a certain 
burning spot on her left heel must be a blis- 
ter which was being rubbed by her shoe. 
How it hurt her, and how tired she was — 
[169] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

how tired ! And when she left Mallowe 

lovely, luxurious Mallowe — she would not 
go back to her little room all fresh from the 
Cupps’ autumn house-cleaning, which in- 
cluded the washing and ironing of her Tur- 
key-red hangings and chair-covers ; she 
would be obliged to huddle into any poor 
place she could find. And Mrs. Cupp and 
Jane would be in Chichester. 

But what good fortune it is for them ! ” 
she murmured. “They need never be anx- 
ious about the future again. How — how 
wonderful it must be to know that one need 
not be afraid of the future ! I — indeed, I 
think I really must sit down.” 

She sat down upon the sun-warmed 
heather and actually let her tear-wet face 
drop upon her hands. 

“ Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! ” she 

[ 170] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
said helplessly. ‘G must not let myself do 
this. I must n’t. Oh, dear ! Oh, dear ! Oh, 
dear! ” 

She was so overpowered by her sense of 
her own weakness that she was conscious of 
nothing but the fact that she must control it. 
Upon the elastic moorland road wheels stole 
upon one without sound. So the wheels of 
a rapidly driven high cart approached her 
and were almost at her side before she lifted 
her head, startled by a sudden consciousness 
that a vehicle was near her. 

It was Lord Walderhurst’s cart, and even 
as she gazed at him with alarmed wet eyes, 
his lordship descended from it and made a 
sign to his groom, who at once impassively 
drove on. 

Emily’s lips tried to tremble into a smile ; 
she put out her hand fumblingly toward the 

[ 171 j 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
fish-basket, and having secured it, began to 
rise. 

“I — sat down to rest,” she faltered, even 
apologetically. I walked to Maundell, and 
it was so hot.” 

Just at that moment a little breeze sprang 
up and swept across her cheek. She was 
so grateful that her smile became less diffi- 
cult. 

‘‘ I got what Lady Maria wanted,” she 
added, and the childlike dimple in her cheek 
endeavoured to defy her eyes. 

The Marquis of Walderhurst looked 
rather odd. Emily had never seen him 
look like this before. He took a silver 
flask out of his pocket in a matter-of-fact 
way, and filled its cup with something. 

That is sherry,” he said. Please drink 
it. You are absolutely faint.” 

[ 172] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

She held out her hand eagerly. She could 
not help it. 

Oh, thank you — thank you ! ’’ she said. 

I am so thirsty ! ” And she drank it as if 
it were the nectar of the gods. 

‘‘Now, Miss Fox-Seton,’’ he said, “please 
sit down again. I came here to drive you 
back to Mallowe, and the cart will not come 
back for a quarter of an hour.” 

“You came on purpose!” she exclaimed, 
feeling, in truth, somewhat awe-struck. 
“ But how kind of you. Lord Walderhurst 
— how good 1 ” 

It was the most unforeseen and amazing 
experience of her life, and at once she 
sought for some reason which could connect 
with his coming , some more interesting 
person than mere Emily Fox-Seton. Oh, — 
the thought flashed upon her, — he had 

C 173 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
come for some reason connected with Lady 
Agatha. 

He made her sit down on the heather 
again, and he took a seat beside her. He 
looked straight into her eyes. 

You have been crying,” he remarked. 

There was no use denying it. And what 
was there in the good gray-brown eye, gaz- 
ing through the monocle, which so moved 
her by its suggestion of kindness and — and 
some new feeling ? 

“Yes, I have,” she admitted. “I don’t 
often — but — well, yes, I have.” 

“What was it ? ” 

It was the most extraordinary thump her 
heart gave at this moment. She had never 
felt such an absolute thump. It was per- 
haps because she was tired. His voice had 
lowered itself. No man had ever spoken to 

[174] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
her before like that. It made one feel as if 
he was not an exalted person at all \ only a 
kind, kind one. She must not presume upon 
his kindness and make much of her prosaic 
troubles. 

She tried to smile in a proper casual way. 

Oh, it was a small thing, really,” was 
her effort at treating the matter lightly; ‘‘but 
it seems more important to me than it would 
to any one with — with a family. The people 
I live with — who have been so kind to me — 
are going away.” 

“ The Cupps ? ” he asked. 

She turned quite round to look at him. 

“ How,” she faltered, “ did you know about 
them ? ” 

“ Maria told me,” he answered. “ I asked 
her.” 

It seemed such a human sort of interest 

[ 175 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
to have taken in her. She could not under- 
stand. And she had thought he scarcely 
realised her existence. She said to herself 
that was so often the case — people were so 
much kinder than one knew. 

She felt the moisture welling in her eyes, 
and stared steadily at the heather, trying to 
wink it away. 

I am really glad,’’ she explained hastily. 
“ It is such good fortune for them. Mrs. 
Cupp’s brother has offered them such a 
nice home. They need never be anxious 
again.” 

But they will leave Mortimer Street 
— and you will have to give up your 
room.” 

‘^Yes. I must find another.” A big 
drop got the better of her, and flashed on its 
way down her cheek. I can find a room, 
[176] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
perhaps, but — I can’t find — ” She was 
obliged to clear her throat. 

That was why you cried ? ” 

Yes.” After which she sat still. 

You don’t know where you will 
live ? ” 

« No.” 

She was looking so straight before her and 
trying so hard to behave discreetly that she 
did not see that he had drawn nearer to her. 
But a moment later she realised it, because 
he took hold of her hand. His own closed 
over it firmly. 

“Will you,” he said — “I came here, 
in fact, to ask you if you will come and live 
with me ? ” 

Her heart stood still, quite still. London 
was so full of ugly stories about things done 
by men of his rank — stories of transgres- 

12 [177] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
sions, of follies, of cruelties. So many were 
open secrets. There were men who, even 
while keeping up an outward aspect of re- 
spectability, were held accountable for pain- 
ful things. The lives of well-born strug- 
gling women were so hard. Sometimes 
such nice ones went under because tempta- 
tion was so great. But she had not thought, 
she could not have dreamed — 

She got on her feet and stood upright be- 
fore him. He rose with her, and because 
she was a tall woman their eyes were on a 
level. Her own big and honest ones were 
wide and full of crystal tears. 

“ Oh ! ” she said in helpless woe. “ Oh ! ” 
It was perhaps the most effective thing a 
woman ever did. It was so simple that it 
was heartbreaking. She could not have 
uttered a word, he was such a powerful and 

[178] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
great person, and she was so without help 
or stay. 

Since the occurring of this incident, she 
has often been spoken of as a beauty, and 
she has, without doubt, had her fine hours ; 
but Walderhurst has never told her that 
the most beautiful moment of her life was 
undoubtedly that in which she stood upon 
the heather, tall and straight and simple, 
her hands hanging by her sides, her large, 
tear-filled hazel eyes gazing straight into 
his. In the femininity of her frank defence- 
lessness there was an appeal to nature’s 
self in man which was not quite of earth. 
And for several seconds they stood so and 
gazed into each other’s souls — the usually 
unilluminated nobleman and the prosaic young 
woman who lodged on a third floor back in 
Mortimer Street. 


[> 79 ] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

Then, quite quickly, something was 
lighted in his eyes, and he took a step 
toward her. 

‘‘ Good heavens ! ” he demanded. What 
do you suppose I am asking of you ? ” 

I don’t — know,” she answered ; “ I 
don’t — know.” 

‘‘ My good girl,” he said, even with some 
irritation, I am asking you to be my wife. 
I am asking you to come and live with me 
in an entirely respectable manner, as the 
Marchioness of Walderhurst.” 

Emily touched the breast of her brown 
linen blouse with the tips of her fingers. 

“ You — ■ are — asking — me ? ” she said. 

^^Yes,” he answered. His glass had 
dropped out of his eye, and he picked it 
up and replaced it. “ There is Black with 
the cart,” he said. I will explain myself 

C i8o] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
with greater clearness as we drive back to 
Mallowe.” 

The basket of fish was put in the cart, 
and Emily Fox-Seton was put in. Then 
the marquis got in himself, and took the 
reins from his groom. 

You will walk back. Black,” he said, 
‘‘by that path,” with a wave of the hand 
in a diverging direction. 

As they drove across the heather, Emily 
was trembling softly from head to foot. She 
could have told no human being what 
she felt. Only a woman who had lived 
as she had lived and who had been trained 
as she had been trained could have felt it. 
The brilliance of the thing which had hap- 
pened to her was so unheard of and so 
undeserved, she told herself. It was so 

[i8i] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
incredible that, even with the splendid gray 
mare’s high-held head before her and Lord 
Walderhurst by her side, she felt that she 
was only part of a dream. Men had never 
said ‘^things” to her, and a man was say- 
ing them — the Marquis of Walderhurst was 
saying them. They were not the kind of 
things every man says or said in every man’s 
way, but they so moved her soul that she 
quaked with joy. 

I am not a marrying man,” said his 
lordship, but I must marry, and I like you 
better than any woman I have ever known. 
I do not generally like women. I am a 
selfish man, and I want an unselfish woman. 
Most women are as selfish as I am myself. 
I used to like you when I heard Maria speak 
of you. I have watched you and thought 

of you ever since I came here. You are 
[182] ' 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

necessary to every one, and you are so 
modest that you know nothing about it. 
You are a handsome woman, and you are 
always thinking of other women’s good 
looks.” 

Emily gave a soft little gasp. 

But Lady Agatha,” she said. I was 
sure it was Lady Agatha.” 

I don’t want a girl,” returned his lord- 
ship. “ A girl would bore me to death. 
I am not going to dry-nurse a girl at 
the age of fifty-four. I want a com- 
panion.” 

“ But I am so far from clever,” faltered 
Emily. 

The marquis turned in his driving-seat 
to look at her. It was really a very nice 
look he gave her. It made Emily’s cheeks 
grow pink and her simple heart beat, 

[183] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

‘^You are the woman I want,” he said. 

You make me feel quite sentimental.” 

When they reached Mallowe, Emily had 
upon her finger the ruby which Lady Maria 
had graphically described as being “ as big 
as a trouser button.” It was, indeed, so 
big that she could scarcely wear her glove 
over it. She was still incredible, but she 
was blooming like a large rose. Lord Wal- 
derhurst had said so many things ” to her 
that she seemed to behold a new heaven and 
a new earth. She had been so swept off* 
her feet that she had not really been allowed 
time to think, after that first gasp, of Lady 
Agatha. 

When she reached her bedroom she al- 
most returned to earth as she remembered 
it. Neither of them had dreamed of this 
— neither of them. What could she say to 
[184] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 
Lady Agatha? What would Lady Agatha 
say to her, though it had not been her fault ? 
She had not dreamed that such a thing could 
be possible. How could she, oh, how could 
she ? 

She was standing in the middle of her 
room with clasped hands. There was a 
knock upon the door, and Lady Agatha 
herself came to her. 

What had occurred ? Something. It 
was to be seen in the girl’s eyes, and in a 
certain delicate shyness in her manner. 

Something very nice has happened,” she 

said. 

Something nice ? ” repeated Emily. 

Lady Agatha sat down. The letter from 
Curzon Street was in her hand half unfolded. 

‘^I have had a letter from mamma. It 
seems almost bad taste to speak of it so 
[185] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

soon, but we have talked to each other so 
much, and you are so kind, that I want to 
tell you myself. Sir Bruce Norman has 
been to talk to papa about — about me.’’ 

Emily felt that her cup filled to the brim 
at the moment. 

‘‘ He is in England again ? ” 

Agatha nodded gently. 

He only went away to — well, to test 
his own feelings before he spoke. Mamma 
is delighted with him. I am going home 
to-morrow.” 

Emily made a little swoop forward. 

You always liked him ? ” she said. 

Lady Agatha’s delicate mounting colour 
was adorable. 

“ I was quite unhappy f she owned, and 
hid her lovely face in her hands. 


[ 186] 


THE MAKING of a MARCHIONESS 

In the morning-room Lord Walderhurst 
was talking to Lady Maria. 

You need not give Emily Fox-Seton any 
more clothes, Maria,” he said. I am go- 
ing to supply her in future. I have asked 
her to marry me.” 

Lady Maria lightly gasped, and then began 
to laugh. 

‘^Well, James,” she said, “you have cer- 
tainly much more sense than most men of 
your rank and age.” 



[ 187 ] 




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